The Call Of Rapture
by Azure Precursor
Summary: Two survivors of Rapture's fall try desperately to escape the decaying city. They struggle against the demented Splicers, the might of the Big Daddies, and a growing addiction to ADAM. And all the time, something calls...
1. Chapter 1: Travelling

The stench of rotting meat filtered through the air of the damp corridor. The electricity had failed in this area, so the rooms were lit only by dim emergency lights. Elda braced up against the wall next to the hallway door, holding grimly to his shotgun. Old Buck had gotten him through a lot, and the feel of the metal and hardwood that made the gun was reassuring, as was the slight weight of the pistol at his side. Harlan Fin, old and grizzled, pressed against the wall on the other side of the door, clutching the tricked-up tommy gun that had saved both their lives on too many occasions. The sounds of splashing water put Elda's teeth on edge. Neither he nor Harlan was moving; the splicers were on the move.

He and Harlan were heading towards the Gaia district, where the last survivors of Rapture holding out against the murderous waves of their former friends and family. Elda's breathing grew faster as the sounds of movement grew closer, a slight echo of insane muttering echoing through the room. Elda's mouth grew dry, and he heard Harlan mutter swear under his breath. Harlan was a veteran, a fighter in Andrew Ryan's war against Frank Fontaine, one of the few people in Rapture that had moderated their use of ADAM, the mutagenic substance that had ruined their home. At the thought of ADAM, a slight hunger rose in Elda, the desire for more of the vicious substance. He pushed it firmly down, and focused on the sound of the approaching splicers.

They had grown closer now, Elda could hear an argument between the mutants, thick with insanity; it made his skin crawl. If his mother hadn't disapproved of plasmids, he would be one of them, or dead. They were only metres away now, snarling as they caught the scent of true humans. Harlan nodded to Elda, his eyes flinty. Elda gulped air, and swung around the door, wheeling Old Buck to face them.

Before him stood six splicers, mutated and insane, snarling their desire to kill in order to get their hands on more ADAM. They were once human, but bone only a passing resemblance to them now. Horrible sores and blisters grew all over their discoloured skin, which sagged in some places, and was stretched to splitting in others. Their limbs were deformed, the bones elongated and bent out of shape. Ragged masquerade ball masks covered their paces, but there was no hiding the rotten, bloodstained mouths that threw obscenities at Elda.

One of the splicers swung at Elda with a lead pipe, but he let loose with a blast from Old Buck, the splicer took the shell to the chest and crumpled to the ground. He heard Harlan let loose with his gun, sending a spray of bullets flying towards the mutants.

Another splicer rushed at Elda, to be dropped by Old Buck. But six splicers were too many; he felt clawed hands close on him from behind, and then a huge force knocked him forwards onto his stomach, Old Buck flying from his hands, and the weight of a snarling, enraged splicer on his back. Adrenalin pumped through Elda's veins, and he twisted over the ground onto his back as the splicer clawed into his flesh.

He could see it now, scars covered the deformed face, and he could see the glint of blood on the unnaturally long, sharp teeth. Panic threatened to overwhelm him, but that would mean death. A sharp, tingling feeling lanced through Elda's arm, and in the confused mess of movement, he could see blue light shining through his skin. The splicer's mouth lunged towards Elda's throat, and a surge of energy, prickling and hot, shot through his arm. A huge arc of electricity jumped from his hand to connect with the splicer's head, only centimetres from his skin.

The splicer went slack, and Elda pushed him off, rolling to his feet. He pulled his pistol from the holster at his waist, and shot the convulsing splicer in the head. A final, enraged scream sounded from down the corridor, followed by the sound of gunshots. Elda looked around, and saw Harlan clutching his gun tightly, pointing it towards the body of a collapsing splicer as it attempted to flee. Harlan nodded as it hit the ground, and glanced at Elda, his eyebrows drawn tightly together.

'You ought to kill that light, boy', he said, and Elda glanced at his arm. The Electro Bolt plasmid he had used to stun the splicer was still active, and he could see electricity flowing through his nerves; tiny sparks jumped from the tips of his fingers. He muttered an apology, shut the plasmid off.

Harlan was rummaging around in the splicer's pockets, pulling out whatever he could find. Bits of glass and empty syringes were the main result, but he had put aside a few shiny coins, a box of ammo, and a couple of hypodermic needles filled with a dark blue liquid. Harlan finished, and observed what he had found. He put everything into the satchel that hung at his side, except for the hypos. He slid one into his pocket, and held the other out to Elda. Elda reached forward and took it; the hypo was filled with EVE, the substance that powered the effects of some plasmids.

He could feel the EVE that remained in him; he was running dangerously low, and the Electro Bolt had brought him down to almost zero. He held his arm out, and stabbed the needle into his arm, forcing EVE into him. A pulse of cold passed through him, along with a new, stronger feeling; the feel of EVE running through him, ready to help. Elda sighed, and found himself collapsing on the ground, his head in his hands. Harlan sat down too, albeit more gracefully. As Elda looked, Harlan's skin took on a slivery sheen. That was the regenerative effect of some gene tonic, a passive, ongoing plasmid that Harlan had used in the past. It kept him healthy, too bad adrenalin stopped it from functioning. Elda tried to speak, but only managed a dry croak. He cleared this throat, and tried again.

'Why are they fighting us?' he asked Harlan, who glanced at him. He had a mane of bushy gray hair shot with silver. The silver was a natural colour, not ADAM-induced. The thought of using plasmids merely to change the way you look sent a shiver down Elda's spine now; Rapture had destroyed itself by doing things like that. Harlan gazed at Elda for a few seconds, and then stood up. Elda hesitated, and then went to get up too, but Harlan told him to stop. Harlan walked towards Elda, pulling a medkit out of his satchel, and spoke.

'They're insane, and I imagine the reasons are different for each of them. It doesn't matter in the end' he said, 'Pull your shirt up, there's a fair amount of blood here'. Elda obliged, and winced when Harlan fixed up the wounds the splicer had inflicted. His adrenalin was fading, and he could feel Harlan stitching him back together.

'How did you end up here, like this?' he asked, more to take his mind off the pain that anything. He didn't expect a response, but to his surprise, Harlan answered.

'I was part of a mercenary group Ryan took down to Rapture when he founded it. We were supposed to train a police force, but when the war started, we just ended up as soldiers. We were the first people that Ryan sent against Fontaine, and some of the first to abuse ADAM'. That was almost the longest speech Elda had ever heard from Harlan, and even Harlan himself looked a little surprised. He pulled Elda's shirt down and barked 'done', before picking up his gun and walking down the corridor. Elda got up, feeling slightly weak, but workable. He retrieved Old Buck from where it lay, and walked off, following Harlan.

* * *

In the lightless depths of the ocean, the city of Rapture had to be lit by artificial lights, and the splicers seemed to enjoy destroying them. As Elda and Harlan walked through the corridors of the hotel they were passing through, they were confronted by an ever-deepening darkness. Harlan had given up on finding anyone else of his shortwave radio, and had it tuned to the emergency frequency, giving them a thin, continuous blast of static that quickly got on Elda's nerves. Elda's heart sped up as the darkness got ever thicker, eventually lit only by dim, dirty emergency lights that illuminated only a metre or so of space. Harlan looked unperturbed by his surroundings, and Elda tried to follow his example, attempting to keep his face calm as even the emergency lights began to sputter out. Suddenly Harlan stopped, holding up a hand to signal Elda to do the same. Elda watched Harlan as he turned his head, as through trying to see through the gloom by sheer force of will.

'They're coming' he said, in response to some signal that Elda couldn't detect. Harlan turned towards him 'we're going to need some light, boy'.

For a second Elda didn't know what Harlan was talking about, before understanding dawned on him. He raised his left hand, and willed the ADAM in him to come to life. The Electro Bolt plasmid sparked into existence, electricity flaring across his nerves, casting a pale light around them. As tiny sparks flew from Elda's fingers, he felt a small tug as a tiny, almost negligible amount of EVE was burned to sustain the plasmid; and the flaring hunger for ADAM that rose for a second before settling back to a dull ache in the pit of his stomach. Some part of that must have crossed his face, because Harlan put his hand on Elda's shoulder, and muttered a few words.

'We can't afford to become like them, we still have work to do'. At those words, Harlan began walking down the short hall they were in, navigating by the glow of Elda's arm, before stopping at a flight of stairs. Harlan turned back to Elda, a frown creasing his face as he beckoned Elda to hurry. Suddenly Elda heard something, like a crash in the darkness behind him, followed by the faint echo of maniacal laughter. Elda felt his blood run cold as sounds started echoing down from the stairs Harlan was standing at. He hesitated for a moment, and then slung Old Buck onto his shoulder, grabbing a piece of lead pipe in his right hand, holding Electro Bolt ready. He began to make out what the splicers were saying.

'So pretty... She was just too pretty...' echoed down from the darkness, punctuated by short bursts of sobbing. Elda's mind was drawn to one of the splicer's first atrocities; the killing of everyone closest to them. Harlan held his gun ready, and Elda noticed the silvery sheen to his skin was gone; his adrenalin was shorting out the regenerative plasmid. The sounds grew closer.

'Had to... so pretty, just had to... she wanted me to...' the insane monolog was cut short by a vengeful scream from behind Elda, rapidly approaching. Fear pulsed in Elda as his shot Electro Bolt in the direction of the sound. The bolt flew wide, but the illumination it provided allowed Elda to see a brief flash of a man in a tattered suit without pants, holding a picture in one hand and a long bloody shard of glass with the other, rushing towards him. Elda swung with the pipe, feeling it connect with the glass, shattering it. The splicer screamed, and moved to drive his teeth into Elda's arm; big mistake. Elda let loose another blast of electricity, right into the splicer's face, before braining it with the pipe. No time for celebration, the sounds of gunshots were echoing behind Elda, followed by the sound of a gun clattering to the floor; he turned around to see Harlan standing around three splicer corpses, wrestling with another in a ragged red dress.

'Sorry honey, but I'm not into that shit!' he yelled as he ripped the splicer off him, snapping her neck. She fell to the ground, and after a few seconds, Harlan followed. He glared at Elda.

'Next time, boy, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a little help!' he said, before eyeing the bloodstained pipe in Elda's hand. 'I don't suppose the pistol ever occurred to you?'

That got on Elda's nerves. 'Fuck you, I almost died killing that thing!'

'And I almost fucking died killing four! Next time you decide to shoot lightning when there's no need, don't miss!' Harlan roared, and Elda shrank back. He'd never seen the old man this angry before. Suddenly Harlan took a deep breath, visibly gaining control over himself again. The silvery sheen slowly returned to his skin, and he began to look normal again. Elda turned to the dead splicer behind him. He noted that, thankfully, despite having no pants, the splicer was decently covered; Harlan had once expressed concerns of ever seeing 'that' again, and had failed to elaborate. He began digging through the Splicer's pockets, finding nothing. He sat down while Harlan searched the other corpses.

'Nothing useful, boy. We ought to get going' he said, picking up his gun. Elda nodded, and got up. They started walking again, Harlan leading the way. A few seconds passed before Harlan spoke again.

'I'm... sorry, boy; I should have-'

'Elda'

Harlan's head twisted back to look at Elda, staring at him for a few seconds before shifting back. A few harsh chuckles cut through the air.

'Heh, maybe in fifty years, boy, but for now I ain't calling you 'Elda'' he laughed, and a smile grew on Elda's lips, despite all that had happened. Harlan's laugher soon stopped, and again the corridors were quiet. Something glinted in the distance, catching the light rising from Elda's arm.

'Hang on, boy, I saw something' said Harlan, increasing his pace. Elda almost had to run to keep up with the old man. Harlan stopped, and Elda saw what had caught the light; a huge circular door of shiny metal. Harlan pressed his hands against the door; it didn't budge. He swung his head towards Elda.

'Help me, boy' he said, and immediately Elda pushed up against the door. He could feel it giving way, millimetre by millimetre, and then...

BANG!

...the door swung open with a terribly loud crash. Elda squeaked, sure that the sound would attract splicers. But he heard no screams of rage, no insane shrieking, nothing.

_Something's not right_... thought the teenager as he followed Harlan through the door. Inside was pitch black, and the Electro Bolt plasmid didn't shed nearly enough light to illuminate it. Harlan sniffed the air, and grimaced. Elda didn't understand why; the air smelled dusty, but apart from that, nothing. _Hang on,_ he thought_, Rapture doesn't smell like dust, where's the blood?_ And he realised that the ever-present stench of rotting meat and dried blood had disappeared. This place had been sealed away before splicers had gotten in, that meant...

'This place is safe, I think' said Harlan. He reached around to the wall, fumbling in the darkness. Elda heard a small 'click', and suddenly the room was filled with dim light. It was large and circular, the walls and ceiling made completely of rusty metal, instead of the strong glass that showcased the ocean. A 'Gatherer's Garden' machine sat against the wall off to the left, but Elda paid it no attention, he was focusing on what lay in the centre of the room.

_Oh, God, it's not..._

'A bathysphere!' he yelled, racing towards the spherical transport. As he approached it, he saw the rails that held it up, and led down, below the floor through a large circular hole. Harlan was already walking towards it, a grim smile on his grizzled face.

'Come on, old man! We're getting out of here!' yelled Elda, coming up the bathysphere's door. He grabbed a lever attached to it and pulled; nothing happened.

'How do you get it open?' she asked Harlan sheepishly. The old man chuckled and stepped to the side of the door, kneeled down, and opened a small hatch on the side of the sphere. Elda watched as Harlan pulled out a small toolkit and began fiddling with the machinery behind the hatch.

'Can't go straight... move though there... maybe...' Harlan muttered, and suddenly he swung the hatch back up, and the bathysphere door slid open on its own, startling Elda.

'How did you know how to do that? asked Elda as he and Harlan climbed into the sphere.

'You don't... fight against splicers for a year without learning how to hack' replied the old man. Elda got the impression that Harlan wasn't telling him everything, but disregarded the feeling as the sphere descended into the ocean.

_I'm getting out_, thought Elda happily, watching the ocean drift by them as the sphere dropped further down, sliding on its rails towards another of Rapture's buildings.

_Or not..._


	2. Chapter 2: Awakened

Time drifted, ebbed and flowed where it was, floating in shadows. It had been here a long time, but eventually it had learned to disregard time. It was not content where it was, but soon it would be free.

_Free_... The word echoed in its mind, and for a moment it was surprised. Much time had passed since its thoughts had formed words. Was it time that had passed? Was it still alive? Questions began to appear, and it was confused.

_Where am I...? _It seemed the most important question, but some part of its mind held the answer. Satisfaction took it for an instant as it remembered where it was: nowhere, somewhere, sealed in darkness.

_How did I get here...?_ Memories came back, a trickle of images at first, but as it brought its will to bear, they began to flood back. It remembered water, it remembered light and dark, it remembered a man with grey hair and unfathomable cruelty; it remembered the feel of warm blood as it flowed through her veins. Everything made a little more sense to her.

Then, she remembered the pain.

Horrible, blinding agony, a baby's thin wail; her own, as she screamed for so many reasons. She remembered a sky, taken from her. A baby, which should have been hers. A thousand stabs of blinding emotion, none of it hers. It was too much to bear, but what could she do but bear it?

_Who... Who are you?_

The memories were restored, they swirled around one man, with a hidden face. Others stood with him, but they were dead. She knew that. This man was not dead, he was still alive.

_What am I?_

_Why am I here?_

_It's your fault._

This man was the center of it all, the source of her pain. Everything he had done had hurt her, in one way or another. She had... something she didn't remember, a forgotten emotion lay in that memory. She was glad to leave it behind. That emotion had made it hurt worse.

_Everything is your fault._

_You took everything from me._

_You deserve to die._

_They all deserve to die._

They were not yet dead, but yet broken. Insanity swirled around her as she searched for them. She felt broken minds, broken souls. They were nothing to her.

_I will kill them._

_Kill them all._

She could feel some part of her mind slipping out, but the greater power that was her could not move; she was confined by walls of steel and stone and liquid lightning. She saw through bloodshot eyes that were not hers, she knew this place, this... Rapture.

It would be his tomb.

She would kill him.

She would enjoy it.

But first she would have to escape this prison.

_Damn you! Damn you!_

She knew what she was now.

She was angry.

_You will die! I will have him back!_

_

* * *

_

'Damn it damn it damn it damn it!' yelled Elda, as the bathysphere approached one of Rapture's buildings, hidden near the bottom. He was pacing around the small space, panicking.

'No! We have to go! Get us out! Get us out now!' he yelled at Harlan, who was staring mutely at the approaching building. He ignored Elda, which further agitated the teenager.

'Hey! Old man, why aren't we escaping?' he said. Harlan swung his head at Elda and barked, 'did you think it was going to be that easy, boy?'

That remark riled Elda further; he all but screamed at Harlan, 'easy! You call what we've been going through easy! This place is a death trap! I want out!'

'_Think_, boy. Remember Ryan's law? Contact with the surface is prohibited, we can't simply take the first 'sphere to the Lighthouse, and if we could, where would we be then? Stranded in the middle in the Atlantic Ocean, that's where'

Elda grimaced, but acknowledged Harlan's point. He had forgotten about Andrew Ryan's only law, which forbade any contact or travel to the surface. The road to Rapture was a one-way street, they couldn't escape. The thought was depressing.

As the bathysphere docked into the building, Harlan glanced at the teen, who was staring at the floor and gripping Old Buck with enough force to turn his knuckles white. Elda's didn't respond when Harlan spoke.

'We ain't dead yet, boy' he said, softer than usual, which still left his voice sounding like sandpaper, 'didn't I tell you I've got a plan?'

Elda's head shot up. 'A plan?'

'Of course. We can't get out of here without authorisation from Ryan himself, and God knows he ain't gonna give it. Our only option left is to hole up somewhere and see if we can't figure out another way'

Elda nodded slowly, seeing the logic. 'So what do we do right now?'

Harlan crossed to the front of bathysphere, right next to the valve-like lever that would open the door. 'We continue to make our way to the Gaia district, and find somewhere appropriate. We get ourselves some supplies, and we should have a safe base of operations from which to work from'

Elda nodded again; in the sudden chance of freedom, he had forgotten entirely about the Gaia district, where they would find other survivors, hopefully. Hope flared in him as he realised Harlan knew what he was doing. As long as he stayed with the old man, he should be alright.

Harlan gripped the lever, and pulled it around. The door gave a massive creak, and Elda was treated to a sudden rush of fetid air, tinged with the scent of rotting meat. Harlan grabbed his machine gun and climbed out of the bathysphere. This place was well illuminated, for Rapture at least; the place was filled with shadows, but not much was totally hidden to Elda's sight as he climbed out beside Harlan.

'Looks like Maxi's Mechanics' said Harlan, 'I didn't like this place much before everything went to hell. Shouldn't be too far from here to Gaia'

Elda had to agree it didn't look impressive. The place was a large room, the walls and floors were made from dirty steel; mechanic tools, engine pieces and broken bottles lay everywhere, and every surface was coated in a layer of grease and dust. Elda's head swung around as he heard a loud crash echoing from the shadows to his left.

'F-fuck...' he stammered, but Harlan was already walking forward, towards the nearest door. Elda hurried after him, trying to point Old Buck in every direction at once. Harlan pushed the door open and stepped through. Elda rushed to follow, but stopped when an inhuman scream sounded through the door.

'I'll kill you!' sounded from behind Elda, who swung around, pulling Old Buck's trigger. A small explosion of blood sprayed across his face as a splicer less than a metre away from him copped a 00 Buck to the head. Loud clanks and crashed echoed from the shadows as more splicers rushed towards him, knocking over the odds and ends that littered the floor. Elda frantically shot Electro Blot into the incoming mutants, hoping to keep them away. A few bolts hit, but most flew wide, and soon a splicer was swinging a rusty iron pipe at Elda's head. Elda dropped to the ground, swinging the butt of Old Buck into the splicer's knee, which was twisted and thin. A crack came from the leg as the splicer fell to the ground, screams cut short as Elda unloaded 00 Buck into its abdomen.

'You did this to me!' yelled another splicer, clothed in a ragged dress and pointing a revolver at Elda as he lay on the ground. Elda dropped Old Buck and frantically rolled to the side as the woman fired, gasping as a bullet pierced his leg. The shots stopped, and the splicer reached into her pocket, fumbling around and muttering. The adrenalin pumping through him dulling the pain of the bullet, Elda gripped the pistol at his waist, pulling it out and pointing it at the splicer, pulling the trigger. The splicer's wrist exploded in blood.

'Arrgh! You should be more polite!' she screamed, but stopped when another bullet entered her skull, ending her interest in her wound as she fell to the floor, dead.

Screams still sounded, but Elda could see no splicers coming at him. _Harlan_ he thought, and pushed himself to his feet. He was filthy, and his bullet wound leaked a fair amount of blood, but he could stand without shaking; the adrenalin was a very effective painkiller. He stumbled as quickly as he could to Old Buck, limping significantly on his wounded leg. He glanced at it and realised it wasn't that bad; the bullet had entered at an angle, piercing more fat than muscle. It was still lodged in there, though, which prevented him from moving very fast.

He snatched up Old Buck and went to the door Harlan had left through; he peered through, and sure enough, he could see Harlan about fifteen metres away, bunkered down behind a steel crate under a flight of stairs. He was hiding from the incoming fire of two splicers, one holding a pistol, the other a machine gun. Elda's heart almost stopped when he saw Harlan's own machine gun lying on the ground, halfway between Harlan and the splicers. Elda gulped, and clutched Old Buck tightly. His shotgun wouldn't be very accurate from this range, and with his wound, he'd neither be able to close the distance between him and the splicers nor survive if he attempted.

_Shitshitshitshitshitshit... hang on. _The pistol-wielding splicer had turned away from Harlan, staring into the shadows where Elda couldn't see.

'Hang on, I think I smelt something' he barked at his partner, who had stopped firing, but was still staring at Harlan's hiding place.

'We ain't got time for your bullshit. I think the old one's got some ADAM on him' the second splicer snarled back.

'I know what I smelt, ya chopper! It's closer... I think we got a little one!' The first splicer cheered. The second splicer gave a short, rough snarl, and said 'you want to take on the metal daddy, go ahead. But I ain't following to yer fucking death'. The splicer fired a short burst of bullets at the crate Harlan was hiding behind. The old man had caught sight of Elda and gestured with his head towards the splicers, miming a shooting motion. Elda shook his head, putting his hand on his leg. Harlan scowled, but stopped moving when he heard, above the splicer's increasingly aggravated shouts, the faint sound of singing.

Elda's blood froze; this situation might just have gotten far worse.

The splicers were screaming at each other now, arguing whether or not to remain. Elda couldn't make out the individual words, but they apparently reached some sort of decision. Abandoning Harlan, they dashed in opposite directions into the shadows, chuckling darkly. Harlan shot a questioning look at Elda, who nodded in response, gesturing towards himself. Harlan eyed Elda, and his machine gun, which still lay abandoned on the ground. Harlan visibly gathered himself, and quickly ran towards the gun, grabbing it up and rushing over to the door where Elda concealed himself and climbing through it.

'Awful lot of trouble for just a couple of splicers' he muttered.

'I got shot' responded Elda, and heard Harlan take a sharp breath. He rushed on, 'it's not bad, but the bullet's still in there. I gotta get it out before we keep going'

Harlan nodded, and reached in to the pocket of his overcoat. He pulled out a medkit and handed it to Elda.

'Think you can wall yourself up in the 'sphere and take care of it while I see if I can't take down those splicers?'

Elda nodded, he liked that idea. 'Alright, just don't go too-'. His voice was cut off by a deep, metallic groan echoing from beyond the door. That sound chilled Elda's blood.

It was the sound of a Big Daddy.

Elda peered around the doorframe, and saw a large humanoid figure emerging from the shadows, at least two metres tall, in an armoured diving suit. No head could be readily seen; the huge circular helmet it wore made its body look like one huge torso. The helmet was set with many small portholes, from which a bright yellow light shone. The creature's right arm possessed no hand, rather, a huge drill easily twice the size of Elda's head was attached to its wrist.

Harlan frowned; the Big Daddies were once human, spliced beyond recognition and grafted into those suits. They were Rapture's most dangerous residents, carrying out their task for eternity, if necessary. Elda's heart pounded faster; the Big Daddies were protectors. And when there was a protector, there was something to protect.

Walking behind the armoured behemoth, into the light, was a little girl. She sang softly, tunelessly, to the Big Daddy. She was filthy, dirt and blood caked her bare feet, hands and hair, and the embroidered dress she wore was ragged and stained, but this wasn't what made Elda's skin crawl. The girl's skin had a sickly green pallor, and her eyes glowed yellow. In her hand she held a long, wicked-looking metal syringe, the needle at least a foot long at one end, a large glass tube stained with blood at the other.

This was a Little Sister, a little girl taken by Rapture's authorities; genetically modified and embedded with a parasitic sea slug. The slug produced ADAM inside the girl, but when the civil war began, they took on a much darker purpose. Elda shuddered as he recalled the sight of a Little Sister sticking her needing into his sister's chest, draining her of blood, drinking it to filter and store the ADAM. That's what they did now; take ADAM from the dead bodies that filled Rapture.

The Little Sister kneeled down beside a corpse. Elda hadn't noticed it before; Harlan must have gunned it down before he was put on the defensive.

'Good girls gather, gather, gather...' sang the Little Sister as she rammed the point of the needle into the splicer's throat, allowing blood to spill forth. They watched the morbid scene for a few seconds when suddenly Harlan swore, and ripped the medkit out of Elda's hand. He opened it and pulled out a metal object Elda couldn't quite see. He barked 'stay still' and pressed it into Elda's bullet wound. Elda let out a yelp as pain shot through his leg. Harlan pulled his hand back and let go of the instrument; Elda saw blood-covered metal fall to the ground. Harlan then quickly pulled out a small syringe from the medkit, injecting the whole lot into Elda's wound before wrapping it tightly with bandage.

'That ought to heal soon' he muttered, 'can you run?'

Elda tested his leg. It hurt like hell, but it was functional. 'Yeah, why? What happened?'

'That fucking Sister's harvesting's going to pull every splicer in the damn building down on us. You'll be needing that leg'

Elda's eyes widened, he quickly hoisted up Old Buck and fed 00 Buck into the loading chamber. Harlan reloaded his machine gun. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling when they started hearing loud crashes and deranged swearing echoing from the shadows. Harlan gestured to the door, and they walked through, closing it behind them. The Big Daddy gave a loud, threatening groan as the approaching splicers grew louder.

'Don't let them get me!' yelled the Little Sister.


	3. Chapter 3: Mr Bubbles

Elda gripped Old Buck tightly, wheeling around to face every new crashing sound or threatening shout. Harlan stood still, his back to the teen. Elda took a quick look around the room; it was large, strewn with engine parts and trash, with three large doors spaced around them, half-hidden in shadow. Large industrial lights hang from cables suspended from the ceiling, which was totally covered in blackness. Elda's grip on his shotgun got even tighter when his gaze passed over the Little Sister busy harvesting ADAM from a corpse only ten metres away, and the Big Daddy standing on guard.

'I can smell it! ADAM, boys! It's almost ours!' echoed from beyond a door. Harlan put a hand on Elda's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

'You ready, boy?' he asked. Elda shook his head in response, though the old man didn't seem to notice. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cylinder of pistol rounds.

'Anti-personnel rounds; you're going to need them' he said. Elda nodded, and loaded them into his pistol.

Another crash came from the darkness in front of Elda. He could hear insane mutterings and curses from the blackness that permeated the edges of the room. It totally surrounded them; a few moments passed, but they felt like an eternity of suspense for Elda.

Then the Big Daddy gave a terrible roar, like rusted steel grinding together. To his left, Elda heard the sound of a door crashing open. They were here.

'ADAM! Come to me!' screamed a hoarse voice. Elda turned, and saw at least ten splicers rush into the room. Most ran directly at the Little Sister, but a couple of them saw the two survivors and sprinted towards them. Elda lowered Old Buck and threw Electro Bolt, stunning one of the splicers while Harlan's machine gun made short work to the other. Elda was aiming Old Buck at the stunned splicer when he heard the sound of steel twisting and two loud crashes as the other two doors burst open.

'Shit!' yelled Harlan, and let bullets fly. Elda fired Old Buck at the splicer twice, but the shock had worn off and the mutant dodged the double spray of 00 Buck. Elda swore, and pushed his arm out, intending to shock the splicer again.

Nothing happened; he had run out of EVE.

'Fuck!' he swore, as the splicer rushed him, swinging a wrench. Elda brought Old Buck up again, firing lead into the splicer's chest. He turned towards Harlan, but swung back around as he heard the sound of the other two doors crashing open.

Elda saw three more splicers run from the shadows, intent on killing him. He fired Old Buck, but the distance protected them from damage. Swearing, he threw himself to one side as he saw two of the splicers point machine guns at him, narrowly avoiding a spray of bullets. He hit the ground hard, almost dropping Old Buck. His finger closed on the trigger accidentally, firing the shotgun at nothing. He turned on the ground, and saw the two machine-gun toting splicers take aim, and the third dash away, intent on another target Elda couldn't see.

He rolled to his left, half-pulling himself to his feet as he scrambled across the ground, bullets peppering where he had been moments ago.

'You gonna die now!' yelled one of the splicers. Elda had reached the end of his momentum and was in an awkward crouch, unable to hoist Old Buck up as they pointed their guns at him. But at the last moment, they were distracted by a huge metallic roar from behind him. The splicers opened fire, but on the Big Daddy that suddenly rushed forwards, slamming his shoulder into one of them, sending it flying, before taking that drill and boring it into the other, causing a hurricane of blood to pour forth.

Spurred on by the adrenalin flowing through him, Elda quickly dug an EVE hypo out of his pocket and stabbed it into his arm. He barely felt the needle entering him, but definitely felt the rush as the ADAM in his blood sprang to life.

A scream came at Elda from above. Without looking, he threw Electro Bolt at the sound and jumped to his feet. He felt a horrible pain down his arm as a convulsing splicer fell to the ground where he had just been. Its horribly elongated fingers clutching a hooked blade that had cut Elda as it fell. Elda pointed Old Buck at the jerking splicer and pumped 00 Buck into its brain.

'Can't you see I'm good looking?!

'You must believe me! You must!'

Two more splicers had seen him. A man in a dirty suit pointed a pistol at him while a teenage girl rushed forward, intent on braining him with a pipe. Elda pointed Old Buck at the girl and pulled the trigger. The gun gave a small click, but nothing happened.

'How can you not believe me?!' screamed the girl splicer, swinging the pipe. Elda shot Electro Bolt into her chest, stopping her dead. He was about to bring the butt of Old Buck to her throat when the other splicer opened fire with its pistol. Elda dropped the turned tail, running away from the placer, his heart in his mouth. He reached for his pistol, loaded with the anti-personnel rounds Harlan had given him.

'I'll get you!' yelled the girl splicer, apparently freed from the effects of Electro Bolt. She was gaining on Elda; he could hear her pipe swinging through the air. He was about to turn and shoot her when he stumbled on a piece of trash and fell to the ground.

He heard the splicer screaming, and then a barrage of gunshots. The corpse fell to the ground beside him. He turned to see Harlan not three metres away, pointing his gun at the splicer with the pistol. Elda got to his feet as Harlan gunned down the splicer. He nervously looked at the Big Daddy; it was dropping a headless splicer to the ground.

Elda shook his head, the sound of crashes still echoed through the air, but he wasn't attacked as he got to his feet. He stumbled to Harlan's side, panting heavily.

'Are... they gone?' he asked. The Big Daddy let out a long, threatening groan, and Elda heard the sound of movement from above them. Harlan looked up and squinted.

'I think we got couple real nasties left'

Suddenly a dark shape dropped from the ceiling, right beside Harlan. It screamed, slashing at Harlan with a hooked blade. The old man dropped to the floor.

'I'll get it, honey! I'll get the ADAM!' screamed the splicer, locking its eyes on the Little Sister, cowering beside the corpse; apparently she had finished her harvesting. The splicer screamed again, but this time the sound was cut off by a metallic roar as the Big Daddy charged, the rapidly spinning drill sending gore flying everywhere. Elda ran backwards, away from the confrontation. He almost tripped over the corpse that the Little Sister stood beside, now cheering her protector on, not noticing Elda's presence.

The Big Daddy thrust its drill towards the splicer, but it leaped upwards, grabbing one of the industrial lights that hung from the ceiling. It cackled with insane laughter, leaping back towards the metal guardian as two more splicers armed with blades dropped down.

'Kill them Mr Bubbles! Kill them!' yelled the Little Sister, and Elda found himself hoping for the Big Daddy's victory. The splicers had jumped on it, slashing at it with their blades. The Big Daddy roared, grabbing one of them off its back, throwing it to the ground and boring its drill into it, spraying blood.

One of the remaining splicers leaped away, aiming for the Little Sister. The Big Daddy, preoccupied, focused its attention on the one that continued to harass it. The splicer leaped towards the Sister; without thinking, Elda brought his pistol up and fired twice. The anti-personnel rounds tore through the splicer; it landed crumpled at the ground by Elda's feet.

The Big Daddy's roar quickly regained Elda's attention. It made to pluck to final splicer off its back, but it jumped onto the huge light that hang directly above it.

The splicer laughed, holding its blade to the cable that the light was suspended from.

_Fuck! _Elda thought, and pointed the pistol at the splicer. He fired away, emptying the gun, but none of the bullets hit the mutant. With a final mad cackle, it slashed through the cable, jumping away onto another light as the mass of metal and glass plummeted towards the Big Daddy.

'Look out, Mr Bubbles!' screamed the Little Sister, but it was too late. The industrial light crashed down onto the Big Daddy in a horrible explosion of glass and metal. Elda felt a shard of flying glass slice his cheek.

'Hah hah! I win! You're next!' laughed the splicer, jumping across the lights towards Elda and the Little Sister. The tiny girl was sobbing as she looked between Elda and the approaching splicer with equal amounts of fear. Something about that didn't seem right to the teen.

'Get behind me' said Elda to the Little Sister, 'I'll protect you'

_Kill it_

'It's mine! ADAM! It's all mine!' screamed the splicer, as it made one final bound towards the Little Sister. Spurred on by some rush of bravery or recklessness, Elda rushed forward, channelling Electro Bolt into his right arm. He threw his shoulder into the incoming splicer and activated the plasmid.

Electricity flew through Elda's arm into the splicer, and Elda didn't let it stop. Electro Bolt continuously pumped into it; Elda smelt charred flesh. The plasmid chewed through his EVE, but it didn't stop. Searing pain shot through his arm, like his nerves were on fire.

The flow of electricity stopped; blackness swirled in Elda's vision. He heard the sound of a body falling to the floor, warm wetness flowing over his back, his arm totally numb. He tried to turn, but his knees buckled. He fell, and the world seemed to turn to black ash.

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Elda ran down the corridor, as fast as he could.

Broken glass cut his bare feet, but he didn't care. Elda turned the corner, still running. The splicers were coming. He had to run, he couldn't stop them.

'Leave me alone!' he yelled, but in response he heard the demented screams of the splicers, incoherent, bloodthirsty. They would kill him.

His mother was dead. He saw her in front of him now, torn open. He remembered what had happened to her, the _things _it did to her_._ She couldn't fight it. He cried for his mother. He heard the chuckling of her murderer.

'Who was she? Your mother? I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!' the splicer charged at Elda, but he turned and ran, leaving it behind.

He turned the next corner. He saw his sister, bleeding from multiple bullet wounds, the fire still dancing over her fingers. She had fought, but it wasn't enough. Elda ran.

He couldn't bare this; he heard the monsters behind him, but he couldn't run anymore.

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'Wake up mister, please wake up'

The first thing Elda felt was a throbbing pain in his right arm, as though the skin had been peeled off and reattached. The second was the feel of tiny fingers gripping his other arm like he was life itself. The sound of a small girl crying filled his ears. It was a mournful sound, echoing strangely, like two voices crying in unison.

Elda's muscles were stiff, but he turned his head towards the sound. Some memory told him what it was, where it came from and implored him to stop, but his mind was fuzzy and couldn't understand.

He opened his eyes, and staring straight back into them were the glowing yellow eyes of the Little Sister. She was clinging to Elda for dear life, an expression of utmost sorrow on her face.

That look soon evaporated, though, when she saw Elda stirring. Once he got over his shock, he attempted to push himself up, but was almost knocked to the ground when the Little Sister grabbed him. It took a few seconds for Elda to realise that the girl was hugging him.

'Yay! You're all better again!' she squealed. Elda was thoroughly confused.

'Wait, wha-' he began, but was cut off by a gravelly voice.

'She's been like that ever since you popped that splicer' said the voice. Elda's head swung around to his left, and spotted the source.

'Harlan!' he exclaimed. The Little Sister looked at the old man too, but not with the same relief as the teen.

'Papa Harlan scares me, mister, can you kill him?' she asked in that creepy, echoing voice. Strangely enough, Elda couldn't find it very threatening now. He turned his head back to the Little Sister, groping around for an answer.

'Uh... no, I can't kill Papa Harlan' he said, and the Little Sister nodded, pulling her arms off Elda so he could get to his feet. He did so, though his muscles complained. He quickly checked himself over; the shallow gash in his upper right arm had been stitched, as well as several slashes in his back he couldn't remember how he got. Finishing his self-inspection, he turned to Harlan. He opened his mouth to speak, but the old man beat him to it.

'Boy, I had to use all almost all of my ADAM to keep you alive' he said. Elda stared, not understanding. Looking irritated, Harlan continued.

'You do know that Electro Bolt isn't meant for what you did, right? After you used up all your EVE, it just kept eating everything it could. I gave you about forty units of ADAM to heal the damage' he said, 'on the positive side, that should have reconfigured your Electro Bolt to compensate for more intense usage, giving you the equivalent to level 2 Electro Bolt'.

Elda digested this new information, but his mind was drawn to one thing Harlan had revealed. 'You had ADAM?'

'Sixty units; twenty now'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'What would you have done?' asked Harlan, the bite in his voice growing a little. 'What use did you have for it? Apart from feeding an addiction you can't afford to have?'

Elda sank back, defeated by Harlan's logic. A gnawing hunger in the pit of his stomach cried out for ADAM, but he forced it from his mind. ADAM was to keep him alive, nothing else. He was suddenly distracted by a tug at his horribly slashed-up jacket.

He turned around, and saw the Little Sister holding onto him, smiling uncertainly. 'What's your name, mister?' she asked. Elda stuttered for a bit, unsure how to respond to that voice, before finally saying 'Elda'.

The Little Sister nodded. 'Elda's an E word. Mister E!' she cried happily, hugging Elda's leg, 'don't worry about ADAM, Mister E. I'm a good girl, I can find it'.

Elda looked helplessly at Harlan, who scratched his beard.

'Believe me, boy, I was just as surprised as you are. Ever since you saved her hide from that splicer, she's clung to you like Big D over there' he gestured towards the crushed Big Daddy corpse, before continuing, 'I'm guessing the high-stress situation must have temporarily overridden her aversion to people, that's happened before, and she attached herself to whoever was protecting her at the time. The fact you never pointed a gun in her face probably helped'

Elda stared at the old man, 'and you say you're just a mercenary?'

Harlan scowled, 'Yeah, boy, I do. Leave it at that'. Still scowling, he turned towards the Little Sister, who attempted to hide behind Elda, 'our biggest problem is the walking splicer magnet here. I don't think we can keep her with us'

The Little Sister whimpered, 'Mister E, please don't let the bad man near me'

Elda shook his head at Harlan, 'I'm not leaving her, and I don't think she's leaving me. We can't do anything else than keep her with us, right?' he said. The old man just looked grimly at Elda in response. Suddenly Elda realised, there was a way to keep her away, and get the ADAM too...

'No way!' he said, 'she's just a girl! We can't do that!'

Harlan cocked his head and looked at Elda 'can you hold yourself to that? Really?'

Elda looked at the Little Sister; she stared back with complete trust in her eyes, 'yeah, I can do that'

Harlan nodded, and pointed to the ground beside Elda. The teen turned his head and saw his pistol and Old Buck lying there. As he retrieved them, Harlan spoke again.

'Alright then, we have baggage to carry now. This little battle has cleared out pretty much every splicer around, and if we can get to a Gatherer's Garden, I should be able to fix a few of the more pertinent problems with this situation. She's not going to be full forever'

With that, Harlan turned and walked off in the direction of the nearest door. Elda began to follow, but the Little Sister tugged at his jacket again. He turned, and saw her holding her arms out to him. He hesitated, then scooped her up and placed her on his shoulders. He began to follow Harlan, but as he walked a thought struck him.

'Hey, um... what about the Big Da... I mean, Mister Bubbles?' he asked the girl sitting on his shoulders.

She giggled in response, 'silly Mister E, _you're_ Bubbles now'

.

.

_A/N: I'm really taking a huge gamble with this, aren't I? Still, I wouldn't have put a plot twist like that in if I didn't think I could pull it off. Alright, so I'm hoping to put more F.E.A.R-type stuff in soon, as well as hopefully increasing the chapter lengths. So, read and review! I need to know what I did wrong, and what I did good, so I can make this story better, not just because reviews make me feel good._


	4. Chapter 4: Responsibility

'I'm bored, Mister E' whined the Little Sister. Elda looked at the girl, smiling uncertainly. He didn't have a clue how to behave around the girl, even though she had barely strayed two metres from him since he had 'rescued' her.

'Uh... we still have to wait for Harlan' he said as soothingly as she could. The Little Sister scowled and stamped her tiny foot. 'Papa Harlan's being too slow, Mister E. Angels don't wait for slowpokes'

'They'll wait for me' growled a voice from behind Elda. The teen sighed; they had been here for almost half an hour, and despite the relative safety their position offered, he was getting bored. Not that he wanted to fight splicers, but heck, he was sixteen, and he wanted _something_ to happen.

They were in a small storage room about a ten minute walk from Maxi's Mechanics, where they had picked up the Little Sister. There were boxes piled high in the room, but the reason they were here was the broken Gatherer's Garden machine in the corner. When they had checked the room, Harlan had tested it. Apparently the machine's access interface was damaged beyond repair, but the plasmid-synthesising parts still functioned. Declaring that he could 'fix the problem with the girl', Harlan had sat down next to the machine and began tinkering with its insides. He had been at it for the entire half hour.

'Mister E, pleeeease can we go find the Angels? I've got to be a good girl and gather the ADAM' said the Little Sister. Elda shifted uncomfortably as he looked at her. The greenish skin and yellow eyes were creepy enough, but that echoing voice unsettled him. That and the giant, bloodstained needle she held.

'Harlan, are you almost done?' he asked the old man. Harlan muttered angrily.

'Give an old mercenary his time, boy' he growled.

Elda's eyes narrowed. 'Are you going to keep feeding me that story?' he asked. Harlan still persisted that he was only a soldier, but Elda didn't buy it. He was willing to believe that a mercenary would have his apparent knowledge about Little Sisters, but tinkering with a Gatherer's Garden the way he was? No way.

'Yeah boy, I am. No need for you to hear about what you won't understand' replied Harlan. Elda grunted, and checked Old Buck again, it was fine, again.

'So what exactly are you doing?' asked Elda, watching the Little Sister. She had started rifling through the boxes, though Elda had already checked them.

'Finally, a useful question' said Harlan, 'I'm seeing if I can make something that can take away the girl's drive to gather from corpses. I ain't going through that experience again every time she decides she's hungry'

Elda nodded slowly. The Little Sister looked up from her explorations, before laughing and jumping onto his lap. Elda panicked for a bit, before calming down as the filthy little girl arranged herself comfortably.

'You're softer than Bubbles, Mister E' cooed the Little Sister. Elda winced internally; the girl truly believed that Elda either was a Big Daddy, or was just as good as one. Some part of him was still repulsed by the girl, but another part truly wanted to protect her; it was strange.

'Uhh...' Elda began. _Not really off to a good start_. 'So... do you have a name?'

The Little Sister looked at Elda, apparently confused. 'A name? Mister E, is that important?'

'Umm...' he said, looking back at Harlan. The man was letting out a wheezy cough that Elda suspected was laughter. 'Yeah... a name is important' he told the Little Sister.

'Papa Suchong said we don't have names. He said names are silly' she replied. Elda felt uneasy, hearing what this girl believed. His own life... no, that was too horrible to think about.

'I don't need a name, Mister E. I need-' she was cut off by the sound of her stomach grumbling. She smiled at him and giggled, 'ADAM. My tummy wants ADAM'

'It won't after this' said Harlan. Elda could hear triumph in his voice.

'It's finished?' asked Elda. _Finally..._

'Around that. Just power the machine and we should get what we need' replied Harlan. Elda set the Little Sister down and walked over to Harlan. Pushing boxes out of the way, he saw the strange device that Harlan had made out of the Gatherer's Garden. It looked like some kind of engine, but with vials of oddly coloured liquids sticking out in all directions. Harlan took his hand away from a series of dials and switches as Elda approached.

'This will work, right?' asked Elda nervously. Harlan shot an annoyed look at him.

'It should' replied the old man. This did nothing to relieve Elda's tension as he reached into the satchel strapped to his back, pulling out a large vial. A small amount of green liquid sloshed around in it. Elda longingly gazed at the vial while Harlan eyed it critically.

'It should be enough' muttered the old man, inserting the vial somewhere in the machine. He then pointed out an exposed wire to Elda.

Elda nodded, and placed Old Buck carefully down on the floor. He took a deep breath, and activated Electro Bolt. The glow was brighter than before, and small arcs of electricity jumped between his fingers. Harlan was right; the plasmid was a fair amount more powerful now. The Little Sister cooed and clapped when she saw Elda's arm come alive with blue light. 'Shiny, Mister E...'

Elda wrapped his hand around the exposed wire and let loose a pulse of electricity. The machine made whirring sounds, and the ADAM in the vial drained away. The machine made some more noises before stopping. Harlan reached into the contraption and pulled out a syringe filled with a strange, pinkish liquid.

'Bring her here' said Harlan. The Little Sister's face took on an expression of pure fear. She clutched Elda's leg tightly, staring at the syringe.

'No! Mister E, I don't want the sticker!' yelled the Sister. Harlan scowled at her, then looked at Elda. The teen looked back nervously. 'It'll just stop... the harvesting?' he asked.

'Yes!' snapped the old man, 'I don't know how to kill the parasite, and I don't think it's a good idea besides. The mental conditioning probably won't go away either, but we can manage that'

Elda nodded reluctantly, holding out his hand. Harlan shook his head. 'I'll do it, just hold her'.

The Little Sister looked up at Elda desperately. 'Do I have to, Mister E?'

'I think...' Elda forced out, before gathering himself and saying, 'Yeah, you have to'

The girl nodded, putting on a brave face. 'Okay, Mister E. I'm sorry; I'll be a good girl'

'Fine. Hold her' said Harlan, kneeling down in front of the girl. She obediently held her arm out, keeping a firm grip on her ADAM needle with the other hand. Feeling strangely like he had failed somehow, Elda gripped her shoulders. Harlan quickly stabbed the syringe into the crook of her arm. She squealed in pain, and Elda's hands tightened on her shoulders.

The girl squealed and kicked, but her arm was held securely by Harlan. She attempted to jerk free, but Elda's grip on her shoulders kept her still.

It lasted longer than he had hoped. When Harlan finally pulled the needle out of the girl's arm, she all but collapsed, remaining upright only because of Elda's grip on her. The ADAM needle clattered to the ground. Elda knelt down and laid the Little Sister on the ground. Harlan scrutinised the small body.

'No immediate adverse effects. I think it's working' he said. Elda nodded, not taking his eyes off the girl. He felt oddly protective of the child. _Not really a wonder_ he reasoned. Despite the ADAM-induced regeneration the Little Sisters enjoyed, without protectors, the splicers would tear them apart.

The girls' eyes flickered open, 'Mister E...' she mumbled, 'is it over?'

Elda nodded, 'Yeah...'

She smiled, 'See? I was a good girl'. Elda nodded again, not knowing what to say. The Little Sister clambered to her feet and hugged him. Elda didn't move, forced into stillness by shock and uncertainty.

'I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but I'm still not sure it worked' said Harlan. Elda stood up, breaking the Little Sister's grip. Harlan walked forward and knelt in front of the girl. How Harlan looked into those glowing eyes so calmly, Elda couldn't fathom.

'Do you still feel the need to harvest?' barked Harlan. The Little Sister recoiled, clutching Elda's leg almost painfully.

'Mister E, what does Papa Harlan want?' she asked. Elda hesitated, and turned his head to Harlan.

'You could be a little gentler with her' said Elda. Harlan snorted in response.

'Humph, fine. Look at me, girl' he said. The Little Sister looked back at Harlan fearfully. Harlan took a deep, raspy breath, before talking again.

'Girl, do you still need to gather ADAM from dead... Angels?' he asked, his normal 'old man' voice softened somewhat. The Little Sister looked at him, confused.

'But all good girls gather, don't they Mister E? Does Papa Harlan not want me to gather?' she said. Elda looked at Harlan, who grunted and gestured at the girl. Elda turned his gaze back to her.

'Uh... He means... um... that you don't have to... gather... from the Angels. Because it's dangerous' he said. The Little Sister's eyes widened in understanding, but she soon resumed her confused expression.

'You mean the bad things. But you can protect me, can't you? Just like Mister Bubbles?'

'Um, yeah... but I can't... um... I have to protect Papa Harlan too, and he can't heal like you do'

The Little Sister's brow creased as she frowned. Suddenly her face lit up as she smiled at Elda. 'Okay, Mister E! We just have to protect Papa Harlan before the Angels call! I still feel kinda full anyways'

Elda bit his lip at the response, trying to think of something to say. Before he could though, Harlan cut in again.

'Fine then, we're done here. Boy, grab that gun of yours, and keep the runt close' he said, picking up his own gun and moving over to stand by the door. Elda nodded, and retrieved Old Buck before going up next to him. The Little Sister retrieved her ADAM needle, and followed closed behind him.

Harlan gripped the large, lever-like door handle. Before he tuned it though, Elda leaned in and muttered to the old man, 'you _could_ have helped me out a bit more, you know'

Harlan raised his eyebrow, 'No, I couldn't. Besides, watching you play father to the little Frankenstein is amusing'. Elda scowled, and Harlan barked a short laugh, before speaking again, more seriously.

'It looks to me like the girl still thinks she ought to harvest, though she doesn't need to anymore. So we won't be constantly announcing our presence to the whole of Rapture, but...'

Elda glanced at the girl in question, 'But what?'

'Without harvesting, we won't be screaming our position to the world, but if a splicer gets anywhere near her, it will attack. It's going to get harder from here'

Elda nodded. The Little Sister banged impatiently on the door with her fist, 'let's go!'

Harlan grunted, and pushed down on the door handle. With a screech of metal rubbing on metal, he heaved the door open. A blast of rotten air assaulted them as they stepped out into Rapture.

'Alwight! Let's go!' shouted the Little Sister, bounding ahead, waving the ADAM needle about. Elda pointed Old Buck at every shadow as he advanced into the corridor, followed by Harlan. When he got to the Little Sister, Elda reached down and pulled her closer to him.

'Stay close' he muttered. The Little Sister giggled and nodded, hugging Elda's leg.

They walked through the dark corridor. They were in the maintenance tunnels near Maxi's Mechanics, a part of Rapture that hadn't had much traffic even before the city went to hell. Therefore, there were few splicers. Elda winced every time he heard something move in the dark.

It was terrifying walking down the abandoned tunnels. The dim lights just seemed to multiply the shadows rather than illuminate. The echoes of their footsteps were deafening in the silence.

'It really shouldn't be this quiet' said Harlan. Elda nodded quickly, feeling a little more than slightly paranoid.

Suddenly, a scream cut through the air, echoing down from in front of them. Harlan pointed his machine gun down the tunnel and Elda aiming Electro Bolt in the same direction, the Little Sister clamped tightly onto his leg.

Harlan gestured for silence with his hand, and the others obeyed. They waited like that for a few seconds, but heard nothing more. Harlan moved forward slowly, mentioning for the other two to follow. Elda kept Electro Bolt active, scowling as his stomach flared that that now-familiar ache. He glanced to the Little Sister who was following not one metre behind him. He could almost taste the ADAM...

_No_ he thought, _I won't hurt a little girl... I can't_.

Harlan turned a corner of the tunnel, disappearing from sight. Suddenly Elda heard a dry choking sound echoing from around that corner.

'Harlan? Old man!' called Elda, running the last few metres to reach the corner, coming up short when he turned it and saw what lay on the ground. Harlan was fine, but his eyes were wide and his mouth was open. He seemed to be having trouble remembering how to breathe. But it was what the old man was looking at that got Elda's attention.

Lying on the ground was a blood-soaked skeleton. No clothes or flesh of any kind, just warped, elongated bones and blood. It took Elda a few seconds to comprehend what he was looking at. The Little Sister seemed to have barely noticed it.

'What the hell did that?' asked Elda. Harlan shook his head as if to clear it, before muttering that he didn't know.

'Probably some kind of plasmid we haven't heard about. We better go; we don't what to meet whatever did this' said the old man.

'Yeah, I gue- What the fuck?' yelled Elda as a snarl sounded from behind them. The teen swung around as a dark shape flung itself from the shadows at him. It caught him around the waist, slamming him to the ground. The air was driven out of his chest, and he caught a blast of fetid breath. He lost his grip on Old Buck.

About half a second passed before a hoarse yell cut through the air and the splicer flew off Elda. He looked up to see that Harlan had kicked the mutant off him. Elda's head swung around to see the splicer climbing on the wall, lining up for another pounce.

'Kill it, Mister E! Kill it!' squealed the Little Sister, and Elda didn't need the encouragement. He pulled his revolver out of his pocket and fired at the splicer. It screamed as bullets hit it in small explosions of blood, but it didn't stop moving.

'Fuck this!' shouted Harlan, pointing his machine gun at the splicer. He opened fire, but the splicer jumped out the way too fast to get hit. Elda pushed himself to the ground, activating Electro Bolt. He aimed the plasmid at the splicer and launched lightning, but the blue-white bolt missed the flying figure and simply dispersed against the wall.

'This is my place! You're not welcome!' screamed the splicer as it jumped from wall to wall. It suddenly produced a short, hooked blade and began to laugh. The sound sent a chill through Elda's spine.

Bang! A pipe underneath the splicer ruptured, spraying steam. The splicer screamed in pain and rage, but the veil of white prevented it from moving closer. Elda could feel the heat of the stream press against his face. Suddenly a massive cracking noise echoed down the room, and the temperature suddenly rose.

'Heating system! Get the fuck out!' yelled Harlan. Elda snatched Old Buck from the ground, stuck it through his belt and turned to run, almost knocking the Little Sister over.

'Pick me up, Mister E!' she squealed, and Elda bent down and grabbed her, swinging the little girl onto his back. She was surprisingly heavy, but the adrenalin running through the teen gave him more than enough strength.

'Hurry up! This way!' yelled Harlan.

Elda ran blindly, following the sound of Harlan's voice. He could barely hear the old man's hoarse shouts over the sound of the exploding pipes. He could feel the steam pressing against his legs, feeling like they were being seared even through the fabric of his pants.

'It hurts! It hurts Mister E!' yelled the Little Sister into Elda's ear. Her high-pitched voice echoed uncomfortably in his head. Then he realised he couldn't hear Harlan calling from in front of him anymore. All he could hear was the sound of rupturing pipes and the echo of the Little Sister's voice.

'Harlan! Where are you!' yelled Elda, but he received no answer, for at that second, the metal ground under him split open, and a wave of scalding air rushed upwards, knocking Elda off his feet. He landed hard, the Little Sister's weight driving the air from his lungs. Panic was setting in; he could hear his own heartbeat as he twisted around on the burning metal, knocking the Little Sister off him. He somehow managed to turn around as he scrambled to his feet, and saw where he had run from.

The maintenance tunnel was wreathed in steam, the pipes still bursting, the destruction rushing towards the teen and the little girl. But something else approached him as well.

_Wha-_ the thought echoed briefly in Elda's mind before the adrenalin washed it away. There, slowly walking towards him; was another little girl. But this girl, for the second that Elda saw her, sent every survival instinct in Elda into overdrive. The hairs on the back of his neck shot up, and every part of his mind not already panicking was submerged in abject terror.

He twisted around, scooping up the Little Sister in the crook of his arm. Fear gave his feet wings, and he ran faster than he could remember ever running before.

But it was not enough. In one split second, Elda could _feel_ the air around him shudder, and knew exactly what was going to happen. With an almighty shriek of tearing metal, the pipes all around Elda burst, and steam exploded into his vision.

'Ahhhhhhh!' screamed the teen. He could hear the Little Sister screaming too, but he was too wrapped up in his own pain. He felt himself get flung off his feet, flying through the air. He saw wooden boards coming up to meet him, but when he did, they crumbled, and he fell through empty space.

'Umph' grunted Elda as he hit metal ground hard. His head spun, and he could feel blackness threatening to sweep him away. He lay there, fighting unconsciousness. It was a few seconds before he realised he could hear the Little Sister crying. Almost without thinking, he twisted his neck around, and saw the filthy girl lying beside him, whimpering in pain. He tried to move on the ground, but his muscles screamed in protest. Abandoning that, Elda tried to speak.

'H- Hey' he managed to spit out. His lungs apparently worked fine. His muscles began to respond to his commands, though as the excitement wore off, he began to feel the pain of getting thrown who-knows-how-far through wooden boards. He also felt exactly how much it hurt to narrowly escape an early cremation by steam.

The thought of that narrow escape brought to mind that _girl_. He clutched at her image in his mind, but as much as he knew it was burnt there permanently, he couldn't focus on it. He had more important things to think about.

'Mister E? Are you okay?' whimpered the Little Sister beside him. She had gotten onto her hands and knees and had crawled to Elda's side. Elda saw, feeling a twinge of jealously, that apart from her face being rather red, she had suffered no apparent harm. She still even clutched her ADAM needle on her hands.

'I... ow' said Elda, and the Little Sister whimpered again. He clutched Elda's chest tightly, and continued to sob quietly.

'Mister E got hurted. Mister E can't move' she cried. In response, Elda flexed him muscles as best he could. He was somewhat surprised that they did more or less what he wanted them to.

'Hey... I'm fine. I'll be fine' he said, and painfully pushed himself to his feet. The Little Sister smiled uncertainly, and hugged Elda's leg. The teen winced, but grit his teeth and took the pain.

Flexing his muscles, he decided that he just felt worse than he really was. While getting steam-propelled through wooden boards and slammed onto the ground was an unpleasant experience, his wounds mainly amounted to bruising. The teen took a deep breath, and looked around.

It looked to be some kind of large, circular service elevator. Lit by neon tubes around the side, it was little more than a platform suspended along a large shaft. Elda figured it must have been used to move construction equipment. Huge cables, at little less than half a metre wide, hung down the massive shaft, falling through holes cut through the platform. In the center, Elda could see a lever attached to a small pedestal, similar to the ones inside bathyspheres. Looking up, he could see openings to large tunnels, and parts of the shaft were massive planes of glass that displayed nothing but murky water.

'Ugh... my head' moaned Elda, as he surveyed the vertical tunnel. His brain still didn't work properly; the memory of that girl in the tunnel ran wildly through his mind. He tried focusing on it, but the image simply would not form. His head ached at his efforts at concentration.

'What the fuck... was that?' he muttered to himself, before he realised another issue had presented itself.

'Fuck! Harlan!' Elda swore, looking around for the old man; but apart from him and the Little Sister, there was no-one to be seen. Upon seeing this, Elda unleashed a torrent of choice words that made the Little Sister cringe.

'What's wrong, Mister E?' she asked hesitantly. Elda turned his eyes to the girl; it was almost soothing to see those glowing yellow eyes and greenish skin after that other girl. Forcefully pushing down a rising panic, Elda replied.

'Papa Harlan... isn't here anymore' he said, and the Little Sister squealed in delight. She ran up to Harlan and hugged his leg. 'That's good, Mister E! Papa Harlan scared me'

Elda grunted in response. Resisting the urge to scream, he looked around, trying to form a plan of sorts. He still needed to get to the Gaia District, and he knew Harlan would be heading there as well. If only he knew where he was. He looked at the lever in the center of the platform, and proceeded to walk over to it.

Inspecting the metal instrument, he saw that it only really had two options; push it right, and the platform went up. Left, and it went down. He knew Gaia District was above him somewhere, so he gripped the handle and pulled it to the right. The handle didn't move.

'Great. Just what I need' muttered Elda. He tried again, with both hands this time; no result. Frustrated, Elda activated Electro Bolt and pumped a burst of electricity into the handle. A flash of blue light appeared, accompanying the smell of burning plastic, but nothing else.

'Give me a fucking break!' yelled the teen, kicking the pedestal. He swore again, and dropped to the ground, nursing a sore foot. The Little Sister apparently took this as an invitation to walk over and plop herself down in his lap, sticking the point of her ADAM needle into the ground between her legs. Elda groaned at the sudden weight on his bruised muscles.

'Mmm... I like you better than Mister Bubbles' murmured the Little Sister. Elda almost smiled, but grimaced as his insides suddenly ached fiercely. It was the hunger for ADAM, he knew. He could _smell_ it, through the dirt-encrusted skin of the Little Sister. So close, all he had to do was take it. He could probably snap her neck before she even knew...

_Stop! Right now!_ Elda screamed at himself, shoving the hunger back down into himself, where it belonged. He would not hurt a child, eerie as she was. The memory of the girl in the tunnel hovered on the back of his mind, still impossible to remember properly. Well maybe not that _particular_ child.

'Alright, get off me' he said, lifting the Little Sister off him. Somewhat calmed, he turned his attention back to the lever. Harlan wouldn't have gotten frustrated with it; he would have figured out why it wasn't moving. Elda couldn't rely on an old man that wasn't there anymore.

He checked the state of the lever. Like the one in the bathysphere, it was shiny, and in good condition, so rust wasn't his problem. He looked over the hinge that the lever pivoted on; there was a tight bolt holding it in place. Elda tugged at it; the bolt was stuck tight. This lever had been purposely immobilised, all he had to do was loosen this bolt.

Elda smiled at his logic. Why couldn't he have done this sort of stuff when Harlan was still around? He shook his head slightly and looked around. There! Lying at the edge of the platform was an overturned toolbox. A small pile of tools glinted in the neon lights. Elda ran over and quickly scanned the pile. He grabbed the first thing that looked useful; a large pipe wrench.

He returned to the lever and placed the wrench on the bolt, tightened it, and yanked hard on the metal. The wrench shifted as the bolt turned. Grinning, Elda tugged again, and the bolt turned more. Finally, he yanked on the wrench one last time, and fell backwards as the bolt came loose and the wrench turned much faster.

'He he he' giggled the Little Sister. Elda shot a stern look at her, which only made her get louder, moving on from giggling to outright laughter. Her normally echoing voice was amplified by the tunnel, making it sound even creepier.

Elda shivered. He could get used to glowing yellow eyes, greenish skin, and a giant needle. He could _not_ get used to that voice. He loosened the wrench and was about to chuck it to the ground, but though better of it. It had proved useful here, why not somewhere else? Besides, he wasn't always guaranteed a pipe or something similar with which to defend himself. He turned back to the overturned toolbox, looking for something to hold it. A few second's search revealed a tool belt; he pulled Old Buck from his belt, then removed the belt itself.

He strapped the tool belt around his waist, and then stuck the wrench into a leather loop at the side. Surprisingly, he found that the tool belt could also hold Old Buck without any problems. His pistol stayed in his pocket, though he moved the spare rounds to a pouch at the back. He also gathered up small tools like the ones he saw Harlan use on the bathysphere; if he could learn to hack, they might be useful. The three EVE hypos he had left stayed in one of his other pockets. His last pocket held a few bandages and a med hypo scavenged from a first-aid kit Harlan had given him.

'You look funny, Mister E' giggled the Little Sister. Elda looked down at himself and smiled; the belt and shotgun looked out of place. _Not that splicers really care what you look like_ he thought to himself.

'You look silly yourself' he said right back. The Little Sister laughed again, sending a chill down Elda's spine. _It's true._ _She's like something straight from the uncanny valley_.

Elda walked back to the lever, confident it would work this time. He looked up, and checked the tunnels above them. Most were small entrances to service shafts, but one, a little over a hundred metres up, was a much larger door, obviously meant to open into one of Rapture's main areas. That was where they'd leave.

He wrapped his hand around the handle, and pulled to the right. It slid easily; Elda could hear the sound of gears grinding over each other.

A huge metallic groan filled the tunnel. The entire platform shuddered, and Elda saw the massive cables at the sides swaying.

'Mister Bubbles?' said the Little Sister. Elda barked a 'no' at her, as the platform shuddered again.

Then, he could hear them. Splicers. Echoes of raspy voices came from the tunnels above them, snarling threats and accusations. The platform slowly began moving upwards as the cables pulled down. Elda swore again, pulling the Little Sister behind him. He gripped Old Buck's handle, but then moved his hand down and pulled his pistol out of his pocket. It would probably be more useful if he had the chance to shoot at long-range The revolver was full of regular rounds; Harlan hadn't given him any more of the anti-personnel variety.

'Fight them off, Mister E! Kill them!' encouraged the Little Sister. The adrenalin was really pumping now, he could hear the clangs of metal striking metal and the mangled words came clearer.

'What are you doing? Horrid monster!' shouted a female voice from above them.

'You can't take us! I ain't going back!'

'You'll see me! You want to see me!'

The screams came louder and louder. Sparks started flying from Elda's fingers, as he activated his newer, more powerful Electro Bolt. He took stock of his EVE; almost full.

A bloodcurdling scream came from above. Elda saw it; a splicer jumping out from a lower tunnel. It fell through the air and landed heavily on the platform, swinging a pipe. Elda pointed his pistol and fired as the mutant tried to rush him. The splicer dropped dead as a bullet pierced his skull.

'Hook, line and sinker!' shouted another splicer from behind him. He swung around as something metal cut through the air where his head had been half a second ago. The splicer clung to the wall of the shaft, snarling. It leaped off the wall at him, but Elda threw Electro Bolt at it. It hit the ground hard near his feet, where he shot it in the neck.

He didn't have time to celebrate as he felt claws dig into his shoulder. He heard the Little Sister scream as he fired Electro Bolt into the offending splicer and spun around. Another splicer rushed him while one more took aim with a pistol. He fired Electro Bolt as fast as he could at the pistol-wielding one, ducking under the arm on the other as it swung at him with a broken torch. He fired two shots as the splicer passed over him, dropping it to the floor.

'Unzip them, Mister E!' cheered the Little Sister, but she was cut short as a splicer slapped a hand over her mouth. Yelling, Elda launched himself at the splicer, firing Electro Bolt ahead of him. The bolt struck just beside the girl, and she fell to the ground as another body collapsed, convulsing, beside her. Elda hit that body, pointing his pistol into its neck and firing. Blood spurted forth; Elda shut his eyes to stop them from getting the liquid in them.

He gasped as a gunshot sounded behind him and a red-hot point of pain appeared in the back of his right thigh. He rolled over, pointing his pistol at the same splicer he'd shocked before, apparently now free of the effects of Electro Bolt. He fired, but the bullet flew wide. The splicer laughed as Elda pulled the trigger ineffectually.

_Not good! _He thought furiously, dropping his gun. Desperately, he threw Electro Bolt at the splicer. It tried to dodge, but the bolt hit it right in the chest.

'Fuck you!' yelled Elda, and forced the electricity out. With the stronger plasmid, the bolt stayed in existence, connecting Elda's arm and the splicer's chest with a cord of crackling white-blue light. Elda could feel the plasmid draining his EVE, and cut it off when he almost ran dry. The splicer dropped to the ground, reeking of charred flesh.

_I didn't know I could do that_ thought Elda with mild surprise.

Another scream from nearby. Elda twisted around in time to see the splicer he had dodged before swinging his torch at the teen's face. Elda held up his left arm as the blunt weapon came down, intercepting it with his forearm. He grunted as the torch struck him with huge force that could have easily cracked a rib. Quickly, while the splicer's torch was still rebounding from the blow, Elda pushed himself up towards the splicer, pulling his wrench from his belt. He swung the wrench at the splicer, batting its torch away as it attempted another swing.

The splicer snarled at Elda, but became silent when the teen swung the wrench back around to its head, giving a sound '_thwack!'_ as bone collided with metal. The splicer went limp. And Elda half-collapsed, kneeling with his good leg.

Elda waited for the next attack to come, but it didn't. He looked around and saw only dead splicers and the Little Sister, cheering. He almost fainted with relief, but that quickly faded when a scream echoed from far above him. He turned his head upwards, saw splicers, climbing from the upper tunnels.

'Mister E! Are you hurt?' asked the Little Sister, apparently not noticing the approaching splicers. Choosing not to waste words and save time, Elda stuck the wrench back into his belt and pulled out the med hypo from his pocket. His other hand reached around to the bullet wound just under his rear. He yelped painfully as he dug his fingers into the wound and pulled out the bullet. He stabbed the med hypo directing into the bloody hole, almost forgetting to pull it out as he frantically reached into another pocket for an EVE hypo. He held out his arm, desperate to restore his EVE before the splicers arrived.

'I'm beautiful! You must have come for me!' a hoarse female voice screamed from above him. Too late for the EVE, Elda dived to the side, narrowly avoiding a long-legged mass flying towards him, armed with scraps of bloody metal. She hissed at Elda, swinging the blades at him.

The teen rolled to avoid the deadly strikes, half-scrambling to his feet. The splicer screamed 'you don't love me!' and leaped at him again. Elda threw himself forwards to avoid her.

He hit the ground hard, driving all the air out of his lungs. The splicer screeched a victory, and Elda braced himself for pain.

'Get up, Mister E! Please get up!' cried the Little Sister. Elda heard the splicer's sharp intake of breath as her attention drifted from the helpless teen to the ADAM-infused girl.

'You shouldn't have! Just what I always wanted!' the splicer yelled. Regaining the ability to move properly, Elda twisted his legs around and kick the splicer in her elongated ankles. The splicer fell to the ground, screeching. Elda threw himself on her, clawing at her with both hands. The splicer clawed back, harder. She apparently forgot about the twisted metal and slashed at the teen with long, broken fingernails. Elda ignored the attack and finally managed to get a firm grip on the splicer with his right hand.

White-blue light emanated from Elda's fist, small arcs of electricity jumping forth as he forced Electro Bolt into the convulsing body. After a few seconds, Elda pushed himself off, pulling the empty EVE hypo from his arm.

He looked up again. The rest of the splicers were way too close, but the way out was almost there. He would just have to hold out a little longer. He picked up a fallen pistol and stuck it into his pocket, then pulled out Old Buck. He had underestimated the splicer's speed before, thinking he could shoot them down before they got close. Not happening again, especially not with these... 'spider' splicers.

The Little Sister got close to Elda, but refraining from hugging his leg. The adrenalin was rushing through Elda in waves; he couldn't even feel the bullet wound, or the slashes from the spider splicer.

'Almost there...' he whispered. Two more splicers jumped out of the shadows, into the fray. One launched itself at the Little Sister, screaming something about ADAM. The other clambered over the shaft wall, aiming a hooked blade at Elda.

'Help! Mister E, help me!' screamed the Little Sister. The spider splicer clambered across the platform on all fours, heading straight for the girl. Elda ran towards her, throwing Electro Bolt at the splicer. The bolt missed, striking just in front of the mutant. It turned and snarled at its new foe as Elda threw another bolt. This one hit it dead in the face, which erupted into bloody shards as Elda fired Old Buck. The Little Sister cheered on the teen's murderous shot.

A searing pain suddenly shot across Elda's back. He heard the fabric of his jacket and shirt tearing. He turned Old Buck to face the threat, only to see the other spider splicer leaping out of the way. Damn, he had forgotten about that one! He pumped Old Buck and fired 00 Buck at the splicer, but the damn thing was too fast and too far away; the shot was ineffective.

'I'm a winner! I'm a fucking winner!' yelled the splicer, tugging a hat over its eyes. It leaped over Elda onto the other side of the shaft, brandishing another hooked blade. Elda swung around to try and get another shot, but he was too slow. The splicer leaped right at his back, slamming into him with huge force. At that point, Elda's banged-up knees decided to give way.

The teen went limp, and the splicer's moment didn't just go away. They both plunged forward, across the platform. The tangled bodies hit the ground and rolled.

'I'm better than you!' yelled the splicer as Elda tried to get a grip on it. It slashed at his arm, but the teen managed to grip its hair and unload Electro Bolt into it. The splicer convulsed, letting go of Elda. Elda then proceeded to pull his leg up to his chest and kick the splicer in the abdomen. The jerking body slid away, hitting one of the giant moving cables. It screamed in pain as it got caught in between the platform and the moving metal. There was a sickeningly wet tearing sound as the splicer was torn in two.

'My brother! Repent your sins!' suddenly echoed through the shaft. Elda turned around to see a flaming bottle land about three metres from him and burst into flame. The teen scrambled to his feet, looking up to see a splicer wearing some sort of improvised robe brandishing a Molotov.

His gaze swung around; the Little Sister was nearby, cheering for more death, more spider splicers were making their way down and the platform had_ finally reached the door!_

'Hey! Get over here!' he yelled at the Little Sister, who rushed up to him, holding out her arms. Elda knelt down and scooped her up with one arm, picking up Old Buck with the other. He handed the shotgun to the little girl before gripping her tightly with both arms and running. He felt the sharp metal of her ADAM needle sticking into his skin as he held her.

Another burst of flame landed right where the Little Sister had been, and Elda sprinted for the large, open door. The platform was still moving up, and there was already a ledge between it and the floor the door sat on. Running sent searing pains through his legs, but he somehow managed it. He jumped over the ledge and landed heavily, throwing the Little Sister and Old Buck through the open doorway. He himself stumbled to his feet, clumsily rushing forward before turning around and pulling the lever that stuck out beside the doorway.

A whirring sound of gears and belts sounded out the lever's operation. The heavy metal door, at least three metres tall and about as wide, began to slide down from the ceiling. The sounds of angry splicers were cut off as the huge slab of steel came to a close.

Silence. No sound came from beyond the massive metal door. Elda's breathing was still heavy, and the cool, still air of wherever they were felt freezing on his skin. Even the Little Sister was silent.

'Hah... hah... hah...' panted Elda. He could breathe, that was the main thing. With a soft thump, he allowed himself to fall to the ground, leaning against the door. The Little Sister walked over and sat in his lap. He felt the hunger rise, but weakly. Perhaps it was the adrenalin. In any case, he let the Little Sister sit there.

'Are we safe, Mister E?' asked the Little Sister. Elda forcefully stopped his panting to answer her.

'For... now...' he managed.

'Okay' she replied simply. She snuggled into Elda's lap as best she could.

His heart still beat like a drum; he could hear the blood thumping in his ears. The pain of the encounters covered him as surely as his own skin. Once the adrenalin faded, it would hurt like a bitch.

He sat there a long time, only moving once to dig a pep bar out of a pocket and eat it. The Little Sister soon regained her ability to speak, and did so. At great length.

'And then, we'll go to the land called _Lilypoppy!_ She squealed happily and she danced around the small room. It had taken Elda all of five seconds to get the grip of it; it was just a bulkhead, a small space that connected two different parts of Rapture, while stopping any potential water intake from passing through it. Judging by the size of the doors, Elda guessed they were pretty old.

He checked over his injuries; the bullet wound, devoid of any medical treatment apart from the med hypo, had healed up alright, but left a nasty scar. The slashes done by the spider splicers were more painful and irritating than anything, but Elda dearly hoped to find another medkit in the near future; the damn lacerations put his already banged-up muscles under undue stress. Mercifully, thanks to the previous med hypo, his right leg and much of his lower body felt perfectly functional.

Thankfully, the trace amounts of ADAM in his system would help accelerate the healing process.

'Perhaps we'll dine on _ham and jammy!_' said the Little Sister, continuing her dance, but stopping once Elda shakily got to his feet. His stiff muscles said he'd been in the same position for a long time.

'Yay! We're going to go find the Angels!' cheered the Little Sister, dashing over to the other bulkhead door. After flexing his legs to get the stiffness out, Elda made to pull the door lever.

_Perhaps_ he thought hopefully, _wherever I'm going, I'll find some decent food and clean water. _He wasn't a fool; he knew that adrenalin wouldn't be able to keep him going forever. He had forgotten how long ago he had last slept.

But as he took a few steps towards the lever, _something _pushed against him. His vision blurred, and his head throbbed in pain.

His muscles shivered, but this... _force_ wasn't physical; it felt more like he and something else were trying to exist in the same space. And the other thing was pushing him out. Panic flared in him as the memory of the girl in the tunnel flashed before his eyes, clear as crystal.

She had black, perfectly straight hair that mostly hid her eyes and face; she wore a simple red dress. She walked towards him, the pipes bursting ahead of her. Not a hair on her head had stirred as the flesh-stripping steam exploded around her. She was just a little girl, or she looked like it. But Elda's instincts rebelled at her presence. The very memory of her was painful in his mind.

The force was pushing harder. Desperately, Elda tried to push back. For a split second, _whatever_ it was stopped its advance. Then a blinding pain shot through Elda's head, and his vision blacked out.

'Mister E!' yelled the Little Sister. The sound was painfully soft in his ears.

_Die._

_

* * *

_

Harlan chewed slowly on a handful of peanuts. One good thing about the end of the world, he reasoned, was that dead people left their food behind. The grim thought made him smile a little, before he remembered the bleakness of his situation.

What had happened to that boy, Elda? _Probably dead by now_ the old man thought. Too bad he had had to lie to him.

His hand dropped to the radio strapped to his belt. He had all but given up hope of ever hearing a human voice issue from it, but the soft hiss of constant static was eerily soothing.

And soothing was exactly what he needed now. He chuckled mirthlessly at the memory of what happened in that tunnel. He had _tried_ to save the kid, but those damn pipes... No, it wasn't the pipes, he knew that.

Those fools, they hadn't listened to him when he said it wasn't entirely genetic. He supposed they had reason; here, genetics could allow a man to throw the elements around like playthings. He was a fool too, with what he had done. He had played with something far worse than fire and lightning. Why else was he here, in a drainage chamber, listening to radio static and the sound of moving water?

Whatever had happened to his colleagues, they deserved it and more. Him too, more than the rest of them.

His eyes turned to the machine gun lying beside him. He still had a job to do, one last task for an old fool. Perhaps God would forgive him.

He snorted in the dank air. God forgive him? Unlikely.

* * *

The world swam in Elda's vision as he regained consciousness. The Little Sister's quiet whimpering echoed in his ears.

'Uhhh...' he moaned, and pushed himself into a sitting position. The Little Sister suddenly squealed in delight and threw herself on him, wrapping her arms around his neck as tightly as possible.

'Yippie! You're okay, Mister E!' she laughed as she hugged him. Careful around the ADAM needle she held uncomfortably close to his flesh, Elda prised her arms off his neck so he could speak. And breathe.

'What... what was that?' he asked. The Little Sister shook her head and told him he had merely fallen down.

'Must have been... I dunno' he finished weakly. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something felt... wrong. His head still hurt like hell.

'We gotta... ugh' he grunted. A burning hunger suddenly flared up in the pit of his stomach. His throat was parched; the Little Sister smelled _so_ good.

That fucking addiction had come back. Elda pushed the thought from his mind and grimaced as the flaring hunger became that familiar gnawing. He slowly turned his head to look at the Little Sister. Yes, he still saw a little girl; green skin, glowing eyes and all. Hell, it was becoming difficult to imagine little girls without those features.

He grimaced, and got to his feet. He felt exactly the same as he did before he dropped, which meant he felt like shit. The Little Sister started complaining about how slow he was being.

'Hurry up, Mister E! Angels don't wait for slowpokes' she urged, waving that giant needle about. Elda shook his head and put his hand on the lever that opened the bulkhead door.

'We're going to have to talk about those Angels' he said under his breath as he pushed the lever upwards and the massive steel door began to grind open.


	5. Chapter 5: Seeking Blood

Bianca wandered the bloodstained corridor, listening to the insane muttering of the splicers following her. Their footsteps echoed in the damp, and the smell of mould and blood was ever-present in her nostrils.

She was in the Silverfish Lane, a small, residential area of Rapture almost forgotten by most. In the beginning of the civil war, this was a haven for non-combatants. Now, it was just as blood-drenched as the rest of the fallen city.

'Gah. Why are we listening to you again?' snarled a splicer from behind her. Bianca clenched her teeth; this fucker had been slavering at her ever since she found him. She didn't bother looking at him as she replied.

'If you don't, I'll slit your throat' she said. Her hand tightened around the shaft of the crude spear she held. Nothing more than a long knife wielded to a metal shaft, it had taken the lives of many splicers. It was her prowess that had attracted these pathetic tagalongs.

'Like you could, bitch. I'm already dead' spat back the splicer. He actually believed that, and it took a fair amount of Bianca's self-restraint to stop her from making it true. But the damn bastard was handy in a fight; he hadn't even lost a finger yet. Well, in battle anyway.

'Fuck you, you slimy- wait' she said. There was a scent in the air, almost painful in its sweetness. The splicer behind her took a sharp breath, and the mutterings behind her became sharper and more urgent.

It was the scent of ADAM. Bianca could feel her mouth watering, her heart beating quicker. Her hand trembled on the spear. This smell, it could only mean...

'One of the little runts' muttered the splicer behind her. The mutterings behind them grew more insistent, and directed at her.

'We can bring him back! We can!'

'I'm so thirsty. We have to take it!'

'Kill them! Kill the monsters!'

The mutters became shouts, and Bianca heard the swish of weapons through air as her ragtag group swung their weapons. The noise echoed down the hallway, bounding away from them.

Bianca swung on her heel, swinging her spear. 'Shut up!' she yelled, and the shouts disappeared.

Bianca turned her head back around, catching the scent again. She was dimly aware of a burning in her gut, but she paid it no attention. The Little Sister's scent was unmistakeable; and where there was a Little Sister, there was a Big Daddy...

Bianca barely noticed the grin that appeared on her face as she thought about that. But apparently the splicers did, and similar grins appeared on their deformed faces. The irritating thug she had been talking to earlier scowled at Bianca's obvious mirth, or maybe that was just because one side of his face was twisted downwards, and the other looked somewhat paralysed.

She turned around again, bounding forward almost silently. Her feet felt different than they used to; lighter, somehow. She knew that the ADAM had warped her body, but to what extent, she didn't want to know. Her limbs were stronger than she could remember making them, but when she put her fingers to her face, she couldn't feel the warped skin that marked so many others. Her eyes, on the other hand...

The scent was growing stronger; she flew down the corridors, towards the source. She turned past one last corner, and saw it.

A Little Sister, wandering down the street, humming tunelessly as the Big Daddy followed her.

Bianca grinned, and dove behind a broken statue at the corner of the street. Crouched low, she peered around the edge of the stone block to get a good look.

The Little Sister was the same as any she remembered. A torn, dirty dress, glowing yellow eyes, greenish skin encrusted with filth. But it was the Big Daddy that really captured her attention.

A huge, lumbering figure, the Big Daddy shook the ground with his step. Its torso was mainly covered by a huge, smooth helmet with a single circular porthole out the front, though which shined a yellow light. Leather straps covered its arms and legs, holding tough grey fabric in place. Across its back was slung a huge air tank, and cylindrical objects hung from a cord near its waist, painted a faded red.

But what was most imposing was the gun it carried. Holding it in one hand by a handle welded to the top, it was a huge affair, with a massive barrel and handle, looking like it was cobbled together out of spare parts. A large, dented cylinder sat right in the middle of the whole affair. Bianca knew from experience that the thing fired huge rivets, the same kind used to hold the city's buildings together. She certainly didn't want to know what it felt like to get hit with one.

'Ah...' she breathed. The thrill of the hunt was rushing through her; sweet adrenalin made her skin tingle. It was dangerous, thrilling, almost arousing.

She heard swearing and scuffling from behind her. She twisted her head around to see that irritating thug, swinging a piece of lead pipe around and swearing. Behind him, she saw the rest of her ragtag group turning the corner.

A woman in a ragged housewife's dress was holding a revolver, licking her lips and inhaling deeply as she watched the Little Sister wander down the street. Her face was disfigured; looking like half of it had caved in. Her left hand, not gripping the pistol, was missing a few fingers. A man crouched beside her, most of his face obscured with bloodstained bandages. What she could see of his face was horribly scarred. He held a beaten-down machine gun in his hands.

And then there was the doctor. Bianca smiled as she imagined the damage that psycho could inflict with the makeshift grenades he kept in that beaten wooden box he held. He was still dressed in surgical gear, which creeped Bianca out a little.

The Little Sister was turning the street corner, Big Daddy in tow. Bianca snarled, and barked orders at the splicers. Her hand tightened on her makeshift spear.

She didn't really care about these splicers; they were lost causes. But she needed them for this.

At her growled command, the splicers ran out, following the Little Sister along the street. The Big Daddy growled, a deep metallic shuddering sound that echoed in Bianca's very bones. It frightened her more than she cared to admit.

They could see her again; the Little Sister was approaching a wall vent, nattering on about 'dream time'. Bianca assumed this meant sleep. So the Little Sister had already done her harvesting for the day; that explained why her smell was so potent. It almost burned her nostrils.

'Well, are we going or what?' snarled the thug. Obviously he couldn't wait for the violence to begin.

_Well, might as well give him what he wants_ thought Bianca, before raising her spear and shouting, at the top of her lungs, 'chaaaaarge!'

The splicers charged. The thug ran straight towards the Little Sister, swinging the pipe. But he ducked to the ground as the Big Daddy let out a terrifying metallic battle roar. Bianca felt her muscles seize up at the sound.

The other splicers had no such inhibitions. The housewife let out a mad crackle of laughter and opened fire on the Big Daddy. The bandaged man dashed forward, spraying bullets.

The metallic protector kicked into action. The yellow light shining though its helmet turned blood-red, and it swung its rivet gun up into a two-handed grip, kicking out at the thug at the same time. Bianca heard bones cracking as the limp body hit the ground. The Big Daddy turned the rivet gun towards the housewife, and opened fire of his own, ignoring the few bullets that hit him.

Bianca dived under cover as the rivets submerged themselves in the metal walls behind her. She turned up to see the housewife weaving this way and that, laughing.

_Idiot!_ She screamed mentally. But now the real rush was kicking in, and she gripped the spear in both hands as she sprung to her feet.

She dashed behind piles of rubble, swinging the spear. Another explosion hit the Big Daddy; Bianca could hear the shrieking of the doctor with his grenades. The metal giant staggered back, but soon stopped, cutting off the doctor's insane shouting with a quickly fired rivet.

The Big Daddy roared, and fired again. There was a sound of crunching bone as a rivet tore through the housewife's head. The bandaged man's bullets ceased firing and loud swearing echoed through the street. Bianca dashed towards the Big Daddy, slashing at it with her spear's blade.

The Big Daddy took the attack, which left only a slight nick in the thick material that covered it. It swung the rivet gun at Bianca, but she ducked and rolled out of the way, slashing at it again. It sent it's huge, armoured boot at her in a mammoth kick, but she managed to evade again, all the while whirling away with the spear.

It continued like this for a few seconds. Bianca's grin grew wider every time she dodged an attack. But then, the Big Daddy relinquished its two-handed grip on the rivet gun and swung it at her in a huge arc.

The unexpected attack caught Bianca off-guard; she barely had the time to bring up her spear to meet the blow. But the huge force behind it knocked her to the ground. She twisted on the metal floor, just in time to see the Big Daddy as it turned to properly crush her beneath its heel.

She pulled her feet under her and sprung upwards, narrowly avoiding the deadly boot. She caught sight of the slightly swinging cord of curved, faded-red cylinders. She had noticed these before, but now she really _saw _them.

Her hand shot out, grabbing one of the cylinders. The Big Daddy spun around, attempting to shake her off, but she held on, as her other hand scrambled over the surface, finally finding a large button, which she quickly pushed down on. There was a clicking sound, and yellow light began to shine through the dirt encrusted on the shape. The Big Daddy gave a huge metallic roar, and brought its hand around and slapped her away with enough force to send her flying.

Bianca hit the ground and rolled to a stop. From the floor, she saw the Big Daddy swinging its rivet gun back into its hand, and the yellow light suddenly flashing red.

_Boom!_

The cylinder exploded. The Big Daddy was thrown to the ground, one side of its suit horribly charred, the red light flickering out. The rivet gun clattered to the ground as its grip slackened in death.

'Mr Bubbles! No!' cried the Little Sister, running over to the burnt, broken protector. Bianca grinned, before scowling fiercely. Her body ached fiercely, and breathing hurt.

'Prox... mines... fuck... yes' she panted to herself. It was a lucky thing though; she tried to get up, but a sharp pain in her chest kept her down.

_Damn fucking floor_ she thought savagely. Digging around in her pocket, she pulled out a med hypo and stabbed it into her arm, practiced hand guiding the needle into an artery.

Bianca grinned again as the aches and pains faded to nothing, before turning to the Little Sister. She felt her body react to her smell, the hunger for ADAM making her throat ache. But she didn't want to kill the girl; she was addicted, but not to ADAM, she thirsted for something different...

'Hey, bitch. The girl's mine' snarled a voice from behind her. She spun around, and saw the bandaged splicer from before, the one whose machine gun had run out of bullets. Ammunition didn't seem a problem now, as he pointed the battered gun in her face.

'Thanks for taking down the metal daddy' spat the splicer, bloodshot eyes glaring at her. 'But now I got some ADAM on my hands, and I don't feel like shar-'

Bianca kicked him in the crotch, hard. The splicer swore violently, dropping the gun and falling to the ground, clutching a few pieces of broken anatomy. Bianca looked around, and spotted her spear, lying on the ground near them. She retrieved it, and quickly sent the blade through the shaking splicer's neck.

She pulled the spear out, dripping thick blood. She spun it upwards, bringing the blade near her face. Smirking slightly, she licked the crimson steel. It tasted thick and coppery as she let it run over her tongue. Mixed with the blood was something sweet, so sweet it felt like it was burning her, something her body responded to vigorously. Her muscles quivered, and some part of adrenalin-charged brain kicked into high gear. A wondrous feeling of energy and power surged through her.

Yes, this is what she sought. What she fought for.

_Is this what a Little Sister feels like?_ She pondered absently after the feeling passed. She licked the blade again, but the feeling didn't return; the adrenalin that she knew charged the reaction was all burnt up, though the too-sweet taste in the blood remained.

The thought of Little Sisters jolted her back to reality. She spun around, looking for the little girl. She saw the Big Daddy corpse, but the girl had disappeared. She must have run off into one of those vents. Bianca sighed, turning around and beginning to walk away, in no particular direction. The fight was fun, and the reward was euphoric, but now her calmed mind began to reflect on the state of her surroundings.

Rapture was her home; it had used to be so beautiful. But now all she could see was the bloodstained street and the derelict buildings. A familiar sadness built up in her, and she let it. It was a reminder that she wasn't totally mad, that she was still human.

It was a mournful sound; the echo of her bare feet hitting the metal street of Silverfish Lane. She could vaguely remember when she first saw this street. She had been only a child. Now, she was... something else.

Suddenly she caught a scent on the air, sharp and sweet. She could hear things moving around far off in the shadows; splicers hunting another Little Sister. Bianca grinned, shaking off her dark mood.

The hunt began again. It always did.

* * *

The wrench cleaved through the thin white metal of the health station, releasing a few med hypos onto the ground from within. Elda hurriedly scooped them up and counted them; three, he was lucky. He stuffed two into his pocket and, with unerring accuracy, stabbed the syringe into his arm; deliberately hitting an artery that healed the instant the metal was removed.

The teen sighed with relief as the refined mutagen coursed through him, easing his aches and pains. He swung the wrench around a few times experimentally, grinning at how he could do it without his muscles screaming in protest.

'What are you doing, Mister E?' asked the Little Sister from beside him. Elda sighed again, remembering himself, and tucked the wrench back into his tool belt before addressing her.

'I need these, they heal wounds...' he said, drifting off at the blank stare the girl sent at him in response. 'They make me better' he said, giving up. The girl wasn't really interested in med hypos, hell, he wasn't sure if the girl though he could even get injured.

Elda turned to the desk of the small office they were in. Sitting on it was a small safe; a seven-digit combination lock on it, and a small hatch on the side, pulled open. Elda felt the small tools in his belt; glad he had taken them. It had taken forever to figure out how to reroute the conductor fluid so he could hack the thing, as the numerous electrical burns on his arms, now reduced to faint scars, testified.

It was worth it, though. No less than twelve Electric Buckshots now graced Elda's pockets, and his wallet was pleasantly heavier.

'Are we going yet?' the girl whined as Elda started to rummage through the filing cabinet beside him. He flipped through numerous manila folders; glancing at the titles printed on them.

'Plumbing' he muttered to himself as he paged through, 'Employment... Contracting... Here we go'. Elda pulled out a large sheet of folded paper, turning around and brushing the clutter off the desk so he could spread it out.

Now stretched out on the desk was a large map. Elda could see the office where they were, marked in black ink. Printed across the top of the sheet were the words "Area 19: Section F". Scribbled over them, in the same black ink, were the words "Silverfish Lane". Elda didn't recognise the area, but he could read the map well enough. Searching over the old paper, he saw a red circle labelled "Mercury's Hideaway".

'Well fuck yes' said Elda. He knew Mercury's Hideaway. It was an older place, containing older shops selling imports from the surface. That was before Rapture was entirely self-sufficient. Once it was, Andrew Ryan's law against contact with the surface had killed the area's industry, and everyone began getting their goods from places like the Farmer's Market and Fort Frolic.

But Mercury's Hideaway was _right next to_ the Gaia District. Once there, it wouldn't be too hard to find a way there. Elda gave a gleeful shout. He was once step closer to survival. He could have danced, spun around and sung, he could have-

'Argh! Fuck!' he shouted as a bright pain appeared in his leg. Twisting around, he saw the Little Sister brandishing her needle at him, the point glistening with a small amount of fresh blood. The girl stuck out her bottom lip, and stamped her foot.

'Mister E! I want to go _now!_' she said, with a note in her voice that said she expected to be obeyed. Elda stared at her, wide-eyed, for a few seconds, then dropped down and scooped her up in his arms, swinger her over and depositing her on his shoulders. She giggled from her new perch.

'Alright, we're going' said Elda, turning around to gather up the map. The Little Sister sat very well on his shoulders, somehow managing to keep a grip on his head that kept her firmly their without pulling on his hair, even when he was moving around. It occurred to Elda that this was the way Big Daddies typically carried Little Sisters, and it probably wasn't practical for him, a mere human.

He shrugged the thought away; if it proved unhelpful, he'd drop her. She didn't feel that heavy, and at least this way he knew where she was, although she was holding her ADAM needle uncomfortably close to his throat. He pulled Old Buck from his belt and turned to the door. He paused, took a deep breath, and stepped out.

It was dark out, like usual in Rapture. He was looking out over a large balcony, with steps running down to the side across the brick-and-steel building he was just in. From his high vantage point, he could see a large, open street, not unlike those on the surface that he'd read about, once.

'I said, let's go!' cried the Little Sister, kicking her heels into Elda's chest with surprising force. Elda grunted, and turned to go down the stairs. He figured he must look ridiculous; a shotgun-toting teenager with a Little Sister on his shoulders.

'Yeah, this is just what I wanted to do today' muttered Elda. The Little Sister kicked him again.

'What's with you?' he snarled at the girl. She simply giggled in response.

'Mister Bubbles didn't talk to me. Not like you do, Mister E' she said. Elda sighed; so she was enjoying the _novelty_ of the situation. He supposed he was glad she was enjoying herself, even if he certainly wasn't.

He reached the street. He could hear the familiar mad mutterings of splicers echoing down from the shadows. He looked around; the metal street was illuminated by long neon tubes set in the short, decayed buildings that sat on either side, more than a few broken and dark. Elda walked cautiously down the side of the street, pointing Old Buck at every long shadow that crisscrossed his path.

'Mister E, I can see smell an Angel' breathed the Little Sister into his ear. 'That way!' she said, and pointed off, around the corner. Elda shook his head.

'We can't do anything about Angels' he muttered. The gnawing feeling in his stomach was growing, he realised. He hadn't even noticed until now...

'But Mister E, what about the ADAM?' the girl whined in response. Elda's stomach kicked into overdrive at the thought.

ADAM. Every cell in his body was yearning for it, but it was more than that. He had barely made it through so far, and whatever luck he had wouldn't last forever. He needed to splice to survive, but...

'Fuck it, I need ADAM' he muttered, and then grunted as the Little Sister kicked her heel into him again.

'Silly Mister E! You want ADAM, you ask me!' she giggled. Elda missed a step, almost topping to the ground.

'Wait, w-what do mean, ask?' he stuttered. He didn't understand, didn't Little Sisters have ADAM extracted at Fontaine's Futuristics? Harland didn't mention they could give it up willingly...

'Ask! ADAM for me, ADAM for Mister E! Good girls share, remember?' she giggled again, drumming her heels on Elda's chest.

The teen barely noticed the impacts. His mind was working overtime; she needed those corpses, those Angels, to get ADAM. If she could really give some to him... His stomach ached fiercely, his throat burned. Wait, the Little Sister were around before they were harvesting, didn't that mean they produced it on their own?

He made a decision.

'Alright, when exactly did I become suicidal? No way' he asked. The Little Sister pouted, and turned to kick him in the shin. Elda grunted at the momentary pain.

'But I have to find the Angels! They get lonely!'

The Little Sister turned and pointed around a corner with her needle again, moving off. Elda turned around, bringing Old Buck up...

...and got thrown backward as a massive force hit him in the chest. The Little Sister tumbled off his shoulders, onto the floor beside him.

'Ah, it's just what I've always wanted!' cried a horse male voice from somewhere in front of him. Elda dug frantically into his pocket and pulled out his revolver. Pulling himself up, firing blind in the voice's direction.

'Behind you, Mister E!' shouted the Little Sister. Elda scrambled around, trying to turn and get up at once, only to feel a bony hand close around his throat and lift him up. Hot, fetid breath washed over him, and Elda could feel his stomach twist in protest. Finally bringing his eyes back into focus, the teen could see a twisted arm holding him out, the arm's owner grinning at him with yellowed eyes and teeth.

'I'm gonna bleed you-arrrgh!' the splicer screamed as Elda grabbed its wrist and pumped Electro Bolt through it. The splicer dropped him, body wracked with spasms. Elda landed on his feet, reached forward and laughed Electro Bolt into the splicer's face. It was a blur of movement in his eyes as he saw it crumple.

He twisted around, desperately trying to see the Little Sister. But as soon as he turned, he felt another massive blow, knocking him to the ground. He hit the steel hard, the wind knocked out of him. He could feel a body moving around on top of his, squirming and snarling. He fired Electro Bolt above him, but the weight didn't go slack.

_Fuck it! I missed!_ He thought furiously. Suddenly he felt a massive, blinding pain at the base of his neck, like needles were stabbing into him. Another wave of adrenalin hit him as he realised with was happening; the splicer was biting him. The fucking psycho was _biting _him!

Elda pulled his knees up, angling them against the splicer. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he kicked out, and launched the splicer off him. He screamed as the sharp teeth were ripped from his flesh.

'Your faces are melted! Your faces are melted!' screamed the Little Sister. Vision blurry, Elda scrambled to his feet. There, in the haze, was a pair of glowing, yellow eyes, nearby the steel wall; two tall, dark shapes advancing on them.

Something urged Elda forward, something screamed at him to act, and he responded. He yanked the wrench from his belt and rushed forward, throwing Electro Bolt on the splicer to the right. He held his wrench high as he ran, bringing it down of the head of the convulsing splicer.

'Yay! Daddy's mad, and you're gonna be sorry!' yelled the Little Sister as the other splicer turned to face Elda. Just in time to see the teen swing the bloodied wrench into its face. The mutant crumpled to the ground.

Elda stood there, panting. He heard the Little Sister walk towards him, felt it as she hugged his leg. He waited for his heart to slow, for his breathing to even. It happened slowly, but it happened. He turned to look at the Little Sister, and she grinned back at him.

'Mister E is the best ever! Mister E protects me!' she giggled, and Elda smiled weakly back. Slowly he felt the wound on the base of his neck. The pressure hurt, and his fingers came away with a little blood, but he wasn't as badly hurt as he thought.

'Heh heh. I must be getting better at this' he chuckled to himself. He looked at the splicer with the crushed face again, and his thoughts became grimmer. That was once human, and he ran the risk of becoming that, if he kept splicing.

Sighing, he wiped the blood off the wrench with the splicer's torn shirt and stuck it back into his belt. The Little Sister slowly walked off, standing over each of the corpses.

'None of these are Angels, Mister E. Let's go!' she said after a little while, before walking off and beckoning him to follow. The teen ran to grab his pistol and Old Buck –he really needed to learn how to stop dropping them- and then dashed to the little girl's side as she skipped across the dirty steel.

They kept walking, the Little Sister trying to skip ahead but Elda either ran to catch up or pulled her back. He was tempted to put her back on his shoulders, but with the bite wound, that would hurt like hell. So he walked beside her, her commenting about a great many things, mainly the lack of her need for shoes. Elda's nerves were strangely soothed by her haunting, echoing voice.

'And another thing, Mister E' said the Little Sister suddenly. 'I want a name'

Elda looked at her quizzically, 'Huh? A name?'

'Yeah silly, like you were talking about before, when Papa Harlan was playing with the machine' she replied, and Elda nodded slowly; he remembered.

'So I want a name' she said again, before looking at Elda. 'Well?'

'Well, I... Uh...' Elda began. _What? She wants me to give her a name? God, why me?_

'Um... How about... er... Alice?' he asked haltingly. The Little Sister's only response was to laugh and demand a proper name. 'Right now, Mister E!'

'Uh... Jill?'

'Nope'

'Molly?'

'Don't be silly'

'Sarah?'

'Mister E's teasing me!'

'Um... well, fuck it' muttered Elda. He wasn't her dad, this wasn't his job. He thought for a moment again, before asking, 'how about Lea?'

The Little Sister giggled in response to the name. 'I like it' she said. 'And the Angel's this way!' she yelled, before running ahead of him, around a corner.

'Wait! Lea! Stay with me!' shouted Elda, running after the girl.

'Mister E can't catch me...' called Lea, her voice fading into the shadows. Elda ran around the corner where she passed, but there was no-one there. Only a cloud of black ashes, floating in the wind.

Wind? There was no _wind_ in Rapture. Elda had never even _felt _wind before. He peered into the darkness of the streetsides, clutching Old Buck in a death-grip.

'Hey! Where are you...? Lea!' he called. Why was his voice echoing like that, the words repeated so clearly in his ears? The world was losing definition, blurring before his eyes. The girls' eyes should be as bright as day in this murk, why could he not see her?

'What the fuck...' he muttered, 'Lea!'

Now he was getting scared. The heartbeat pounded in his ears, and his vision blurred in a surreal picture. He shook his head; the neon streetlights streaked in his eyes. He took a step; his footfall echoed in his ears.

Time seemed to stretch. Elda felt enclosed, compressed, like suddenly there was a barrier between him and the rest of the world. He felt alone, but the feeling was somehow... warm, organic.

_Are you there?_

Elda twisted around, terrified. There was no-one in the street, and the sides were still a curtain of shadows. Why did it look like it floated alone in the darkness now?

_She's seen you_

'Who are you?' Elda called, but the sound felt muted, soft, though the words echoed down the street further than they should have. Some instinct caught him, and he turned around, to see the form of the girl, standing there, looking at him with dead, black eyes behind the curtain of lank black hair.

Suddenly it stopped. It was like he blinked, and the world righted itself. The heartbeat left his ears, the shapes around him sharpened, the echoes cut off. She was gone. Elda stood there for a few seconds, breathing. He turned his head when he felt a tugging at his pants.

The Little Sister -_Lea_, he told himself- was gripping his pants with one tiny hand and looking at him, glowing yellow eyes staring upwards. Her voice trembled.

'A-Are you okay, Mister E?' she asked, frowning. 'That wasn't funny'

Elda shook his head, trying to clear it. 'What was that...' he muttered, before addressing the girl beside him.

'I'll be fine. I'm... sorry' he said weakly. He was starting to get a grip on himself, re-asserting his sense of reality. But he could remember that girl; every strand of black hair, every glint in those dark eyes, every bloody smudge on her bare feet.

He shook his head again, more vigorously this time. The memory of the tunnel, where he had lost Harlan, came back to him; the steam, which had nearly killed him, and that girl. And what was that voice? What did it mean, she had _seen_ him?

A sharp pain jabbed into his leg. Elda yelped, and jerked him leg back as Lea pulled her needle from his thigh. He hopped backwards, and promptly fell on his ass. Lea laughed gleefully at Elda, who glared back at her.

A loud, clanging noise suddenly echoed from down the street.

The Little Sister visibly jerked, and ran around behind Elda, pushing her shoulder into his back, apparently trying to force him to his feet.

'Stupid Mister E! Move!' she said as Elda scrambled up. The teen snatched Old Buck from the ground and turned, but turned back when he heard something behind him, and above; the sound of metal scraping on metal. Elda peered upwards, but the glare of the neon lights obscured his vision.

'I think we better go...' he whispered. A clanging noise echoed from the dark above them.

'Mister E can stop it, Mister E can beat anything' said Lea, though she clutched Elda's pant leg tightly.

'Forget about the Angel' said Elda, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Electric Buckshot. 'We need to get to Gaia'

'But Mister E...' whined Lea. Another metallic scraping sound, closer this time, echoed towards them.

Elda finished loading the ammo into Old Buck. He mentally ran though the directions to Mercury's Hideaway; they would make it. He moved backwards as quickly as he could, pulling Lea with him. Something was hunting them, he could feel it.

* * *

The whiskey was slowly forming a pleasant haze in Harlan's mind. It wasn't for pleasure, he told himself; this was medicinal. He kept a tight grip on his machine gun; his knuckles were going numb from the pressure.

He was walking slowly through the dark. He was below the rest of the city, in a complex hollowed into the bedrock; it had been perfect for his purposes. A shallow layer of water soaked through his shoes, and the slight splashing sounds echoed in perfect silence. Apart from _her_.

What was that? Harlan swung around behind him, but there was nothing there. No phantom image, no murderous giggling, no ash. Quickly, Harlan turned back and hurried down the corridor.

'Must be getting para... Gah, never mind' he muttered to himself. Paranoia, here, was merely caution. He was aware that talking to himself probably wasn't healthy, but he ignored that, there was only one other person with him, and he had nothing to say to her.

His hand dropped to the radio at his side. It had gone silent about an hour ago, when he had entered the facility. Not that he was going to contact anyone, everyone he knew was dead, and those fuckers in Gaia were no help.

Well, _this_ wasn't getting out. There was one last task for the old man, and damn it, he was _not_ going to fail.

'Fuck you, Alma!' he yelled into the dark. 'You hear me, girl? Fuck! You!'

He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard something, like a whisper in the wind, brush past him in response.

* * *

Bianca could hear them running from her. That was strange, but not unthinkable. What confused her was the smell. There was a Little Sister here, or had been, but there was no smell of blood, or the rotten seawater stench of a Big Daddy. There were no yells of defiance or madness echoing from beyond; just the soft echo of rapid footsteps.

That certainly was strange. Little Sisters didn't rush, and no ADAM-crazed splicer would take the time to cart her off. And there were no screams that could have come from a little girl.

But just recently, she had heard gunshots. This was going to be dangerous. And _fun_.

She was faster than they. She leapt over a broken statue of hollow marble, jumped up to balconies to avoid having to turn. The footsteps became louder.

'Run!'

The shout wasn't for her. She could hear new arrivals. A new scent found her, reminiscent of dried blood and urine. Splicers. She ran faster.

Now she could see them, stuck at the corner of a ruined building and a steel wall. A group of figures and a Little Sister. The girl didn't stand a chance.

Bianca leaped forward, pulling her spear free. This was going to be a memorable fight. She didn't care about the Little Sister, but a chance to paste these animals? She wouldn't miss it for the world.

She crawled up the side of the broken building, pulling herself onto a ledge. Some part of her still marvelled at the agility she now possessed that allowed her to do this, but most of her was intent of what was happening below her.

'Now, now, kid. Put papa's gun away and let's settle this like gentlemen' drawled a voice below her. Looking down from her precarious perch, Bianca could see one of the splicers pointing a shotgun at another, the Little Sister shoved behind its back. What the hell was going on? No matter; Bianca readied herself to leap. If she was quick, she could draw first blood.

'Give us the girlie, and we'll-' he splicer began, but was cut off by the sudden crack of the shotgun firing. Blood flew, and the remaining splicers snarled and readied weapons.

'Oh, you did _not_ just steal my kill' muttered Bianca. Picking a new target –a twisted male splicer clutching a metal bat– she launched herself off the ledge, slamming her feet into its chest, driving her spear into its throat.

She heard the Little Sister give a startled yell. Behind her, the male splicer yelled back. Bianca supposed she'd deal with that one last. With an exultant cry as adrenalin surged through her, she yanked her spear out of the splicer she'd landed on, and slashed out, flinging more blood to decorate Rapture.

_A/N_

_Hey... well, I feel embarrassed. Honestly, I think I've demonstrated that I can't keep to a schedule. I suppose the most responsible thing to say would be 'an update will come when I feel like it'. That makes me sound like a dick, but there you have it._

_Bianca is an experiment of mine. I want to see well I can write a character that doesn't follow conventional logic. Because, the way I see it, everyone in Rapture is at least a little insane._

_On the subject of Bioshock 2, I haven't played it, nor will I in the foreseeable future. That's not because I don't want to, but because I don't have a computer that can play it nor money to buy one._

_Edit 9/4/10: I fixed some pretty-freaking-serious formatting issues in this chapter. Now you should be able to tell where one character ends and the next begins. Chapters 1-2 should be getting a re-tool as well, to remove 'wall-of-text syndrome'. Still hoping for some nice reviews to tell me what I'm doing well, what I need to improve on, stuff like that.  
_


	6. Chapter 6: Dark Son

Elda could feel his heartbeat in his hands as he gripped Old Buck. The splicer in front of him was grinning at Lea, licking his lips with what looked more like a tentacle than a tongue. Slowly, he grabbed the back of the girl's dress and pulled her behind him. Snarling, the splicer turned his bloodshot eyes back to the teen.

'Ya think you take all of us?' the splicer half-laughed, half-choked out, gesturing to the figures behind him. Lea gripped his leg as they let out low chuckles. Elda felt bile rise in his throat, but he forced himself to be calm. He pumped Old Buck, raising it to the splicer's face. It snarled in response.

'Now, now, kid. Put papa's gun away and let's settle this like gentlemen' it said, raising its own hands. Elda chanced a quick glance at them; they were far longer and sharper than nature had made them; the knuckle bones looked dislocated, but they flexed easily.

He could feel the EVE flowing in his blood. There was more than enough for a fight, but would he be quick enough?

The splicer was getting impatient now, starting to speak again. 'Give us the girlie, and we'll-' it was cut off as Elda pulled the trigger, and the creature's head promptly exploded in a spray of buckshot. Behind him, Lea screamed as the other splicers snarled obscenities at him, one raising a twisted brandishing a pistol, levelling it at the teen.

'Stay behind me!' he yelled to the Little Sister, activating Electro Bolt and letting loose with a spray of electricity. The splicer shrieked and convulsed, until Elda raised Old Buck and fired, dropping it to the ground, blood and shattered bone flying from a mangled shoulder. Twisting around, Elda brought Old Buck up just fast enough to block a piece of pipe from crushing his skull.

He stood there for a second, straining to keep Old Buck from being knocked out of his hands by the mangled thug before him. Electricity crackled dangerously along Elda's left knuckles, but the plasmid was impotent with his hand bracing the shotgun. The splicer shoving the pipe forward suddenly pulled back, before pushing forward with a vicious swing towards Elda's head. Elda swung Old Buck in kind, but with both hands. The teen's more powerful strike batted the pipe out the way, the splicer snarling at the obstruction.

Elda quickly released his left hand's grip on the gun, slapping it onto the splicer's unprotected side, before letting loose with Electro Bolt. The splicer dropped the pipe and convulsed, but Elda kept pumping electricity into the mutant, bringing Old Buck up and shoving the barrel into the splicer's chest, throwing his weight into the shotgun and firing it one-handed.

The splicer fell backwards, missing a few ribs and organs. The recoil of the gun jolted Elda's arm mercilessly, and the felt his fingers go numb. He staggered back a few steps as his balance was completely destroyed. But he couldn't hear any more splicers screaming or swearing, and no gunshots. Now he could keep moving, but weren't there more than just–

'Mister E!' Screamed Lea. The noise made Elda swing around, ready to bring low any threat to the Little Sister, but the instant he did, he felt Old Buck knocked from his abused hand, and the next, he saw the bloodied tip of a blade level itself between his eyes, barely more than a few centimetres from his skin.

Electro Bolt crawled up his arm, and he flexed his fingers in preparation for unleashing a blast, but the speartip moved closer; Elda could feel the point just touching his skin.

'None of that, thank you' said an oddly strained female voice. Drawing his eyes away from the bloody steel –which was not easy– Elda looked at the figure wielding the weapon. It was female, but this wasn't what startled the teen; what startled him was how _human_ she looked. Her skin was pulled tight over her face; the tips of her eyes pulled back and up, but nothing twisted or melted like he was used to seeing.

Her clothes were similar to the plain jacket, trousers and shirt he wore, though she had a vest instead; they were all frayed and ragged, but obviously she bothered to ensure that she was decent; blood-spattered bandages were wrapped around her where skin would have shown, and slashes in her clothes were roughly sewn up. She was smiling, in much the same manner that some sadistic torturer would smile when given a new prisoner. She looked feline, and feral.

'Guessin' by what I'm seeing, you're not one of these fucked-ups, am I right?' she said, nudging a nearby corpse with her foot. She was wearing battered black boots not dissimilar to his own, though they were encrusted with what he now recognised as a mixture of dirt and dried blood. She pulled the spear back a little, and he chanced a quick shake of his head.

The girl was obviously unsatisfied at his response, though. She pulled the spear back, grounding it at her feet and glancing at Lea, who clutched Elda's leg in abject fear.

'So what're you doin' with this thing?' she said, smiling savagely at the Little Sister.

_That_ pulled Elda out of it. He clenched his fists; blue-white arcs danced over his skin as he activated Electro Bolt. He stared the splicer in the eyes, thinking about the pistol he still had in his pocket.

At seeing the plasmid, the spear was up again, with the splicer setting into a defensive position. She opened her mouth to say something, but the teen cut her off.

'She' he spat, 'is _mine_'.

The splicer narrowed her eyes; for the first time, Elda looked at them properly. They were certainly startling. It looked like she was bleeding into them; the whites were practically covered in dull red lines, and the original colour of her eyes was impossible to tell; they were now a dingy brown colour identical to the bloodstains on her clothing.

'Well' she said, 'I figure we don't really have to kill each other then'. She gestured at Lea with her free hand. 'I'm not interested in nabbing the runts. I just want the Daddies' she continued, before flashing a feral grin at Elda. 'And I don't think that's you. Unless...' She trailed off, looking at Lea.

'Daddy' mumbled the Little Sister, 'I don't like her. Kill her for me'

'Lea, I just-' began the teen, but stopped before he got anywhere. He twisted around to look at the Little Sister. Did she just say...? Shoving it to the back of his mind, he turned back to the splicer, letting Electro Bolt fade.

'I'm not a Big Daddy. So if it's one of them you want, you might as well leave. I haven't heard one around in...' how long had it been since he found Lea? A few hours? A few days? '...a fair while. So there doesn't need to be violence?' he said. In response, the splicer cocked her head to the side and stared at him. Intently.

She passed a few seconds like that, just averting her eyes when Elda was starting to feel uncomfortable. She turned away, muttering to herself in a voice too low for the teen to hear. Elda slipped his hand into his pocket and gripped his pistol's handle; ready to draw and fire.

Suddenly, the splicer swung her head back around and snapped, 'where are you going?'

Startled, Elda almost pulled the gun on her. After a brief mentally floundering around for an answer, he said, 'there's supposed to be some sort of holdout in Gaia District'

The splicer nodded, then barked, 'and you suppose to get there alone, do you?'

'It's not like I have–'

'No radio, friends? Nothing?'

'There was one guy. I'm not sure–'

'And what do you expect to do with the girl?'

'Haven't thought it...' Elda began, but trailed off. Flicking a few sparks from his fingertips, he demanded, 'why should I be telling you anything?'

In response, the splicer spun the spear around a few times before driving the end down into a dead splicer's neck. Grinning, she shot her response at him.

'Because' she replied, 'I think I'll be going with you'

'...'

'...'

'...wait, what?' sputtered Elda. The splicer seemed amused by his sudden loss of brain function. She stood there, grinning, while the teen choked slightly.

'Mister E! Are you okay?' exclaimed Lea from behind him. Raising an arm to still her, Elda forced the shock from his mind. This made no sense. This splicer girl –or woman, she looked about the age to be called either– wanted to go with them to Gaia? Looking at the fair few splicer corpses with huge slashes in them, and the lack of similar wounds on her, he could surmise that she'd be useful.

But she was a _splicer_. What was to stop her from killing in his sleep? For that matter, what was stopping him from killing her now? The pistol would take all of a second to pull out, and at this range, there was no way he could miss.

But... there was no point in just throwing away potential help, was there? He opened his mouth to speak.

'Why?' It was a reasonable enough question; Elda didn't think it warranted the outburst of laughter it brought out of the splicer.

'Because there's, like, a couple hundred splicers between you and that place! You seriously think you can pull it off _alone?_' she chortled, 'Good luck!'

_What? A couple hundred?_ Elda thought, before stepping forward, towards the splicer. 'I have a map. It's a short run from Mercury's Hideaway to Gaia. I can make it'

'And where exactly is this Hideaway?'

'Close. It's here in Silverfish' replied Elda. He was getting irritated now. There's no way that there were _hundreds_ of splicers between here and Gaia. Then again, he had lost track of _exactly_ where he was days ago. He had mostly relied on Harlan to deal with that.

' Silverfish Lane? Is that were you think you are?' chuckled the splicer, before cocking her head again and saying, 'hate to break it to you, kid, but you're a couple levels _above _Silverfish'

'What!' Elda burst out. Above? Maybe he had jumped the gun when he assumed that he was in Silverfish. If she was telling the truth... Fuck.

'Ooh, did I upset you?' cooed the splicer. Elda shook his head.

'No, I...' he trailed off, glaring at the splicer. He came to a decision.

'Alright. You want to come with us? Can you take us to the Gaia District?'

'That's all you want? To run to safety?'

'Can you take us or not?'

'Well...' she said, grinning lazily. 'Sure, I can do that. I just need you to remember something'

'And what's- Gah!' Elda began, but his words were cut off in a surprised shout as the splicer _disappeared, _only to appear behind him a split-second later, accompanied by a powerful rush of air.

Lea screamed, and ran around Elda as he turned, taking a vice-like hold on his leg.

Electricity flared from his fingers as Electro-Bolt came to life; Elda opened his mouth to shout, threaten, _something_, but was stopped short as the splicer placed a finger over his lips, making a shushing sound.

'I'm faster than you' she whispered, before releasing the teen and stepping back. Elda growled a little, holding his electrified hand close in front of him. The splicer chuckled slightly, before transferring her spear to her left hand, extending the right one out to Elda. The teen just stood there, considering.

'I'm done now, I swear', she said, gesturing with her still-proffered hand. Slowly, Elda released Electro-Bolt and reached forward, grasping her hand in a firm grip.

'I'm Elda' he said clearly as they shook hands. 'The girl's name is Lea'

'Bianca' replied the splicer, relaxing her grip. 'And you better hurry, ′cause I'm not waiting for you to catch up'

And with that, Bianca turned and _leapt_ forward, blurring away from them.

'Well, you coming?' she shouted. Elda growled slightly, and turned to Lea. The Little Sister was still gripping his leg, staring up at him.

'I don't like her, Mister E' she said, as Elda pried her away from him.

'It'll be okay' he said, grabbing Old Buck from the ground. 'Come on' he gestured, and had the air knocked out of him as Lea jumped on him, climbing up his back. The teen sighed as he lifted the Little Sister onto his shoulders, and grunted as she kicked him in the chest once securely perched.

'Am I talking to myself? Get your asses moving!' echoed Bianca's voice from ahead of them. Readying Old Buck, Elda followed that echo.

* * *

The dim, red glow of the emergency lights cast a bloody shade over the water that covered the corridor floor. It brought painful memories to Harlan; memories of wading through blood, of shadowy figures and a ghostly little girl.

'That never happened' he muttered to himself. 'None of that actually happened'.

He wasn't entirely sure, of course, that he was telling himself the truth. But concepts like 'truth' and 'reality' were empty words now, and becoming more so the closer he came.

His machine gun had long since run out of ammo, and so the comforting weapon that used to reside in his grip was now just dead weight stuffed into his satchel. The revolver in his hand was now the only weapon he had left. No matter; at the end, the bullet that saved him could come from any gun.

Splashes. Hissing. Harlan turned around, searching for the source of the noise. He saw ripples in the water, and shot at their origin. He was rewarded by the sight of a twisted body falling face-first into the wet, leaking blood that hardly made an impact on the already ruby-coloured water.

'Fuck you' he said to the corpse. Digging into his pocket, he opened up his revolver and pushed a bullet in to replace the one currently lodged somewhere in the splicer's spine. Turning back, he hurried through the corridor.

He was under the bedrock now; in a laboratory complex beneath Rapture itself. Here, you could look out the window and see only black. He had often wondered how Ryan had managed to get this place built, but was thankful that he did; it served as a wonderful prison.

Or it used to. Perhaps it still did, to an extent. Harlan didn't know for sure what he was walking into, but he was going there anyway. It was his responsibility.

He found a door at the end of the corridor. A large, old thing made entirely of corroded metal; he had to slam his shoulder against it several times before the large metal handle would shift. Gritting his teeth, he shoved the door with all his strength, and it slid open with and ear-splitting groan of rusted metal on metal.

It was dark inside. Not even the red glow of emergency lights penetrated here. Grumbling, Harlan pulled his satchel around and rummaged around in it for a few seconds before pulling out a long torch he had pulled from a splicer corpse. He grinned at his foresight before reminding himself it was only common sense; after all, with all the lights disturbingly prone to failure, what kind of moron ran around this city without a torch?

Holding the light source in his left hand and his revolver in his right, Harlan looked around the black room; it looked like some kind of lobby, with red vinyl couches, and a long desk off to one side. The ankle-deep water and corpse lying face-down in it rather ruined the effect, though. Across the length of the room, he saw a small, one-man elevator, unlit door half-open.

Striding over to the appliance, avoiding the rotten body in his way, Harlan pulled open the door, made of worked brass and glass. Stepping into the elevator, he pressed the 'down' button, and was subsequently disappointed as he remained unmoving.

'Nothing's ever easy...' he muttered, stepping out and turning around. Shining the torch around, he spotted a wrought-iron grille covering an air vent behind the desk to the side of the room. Sighing, he walked over and pulled it free. It was almost too small, but he figured if he shoved his satchel before him, he could get through it.

'I fail to see how this can turn out badly' he said to himself. Chuckling slightly at the joke, he knelt down and got his trousers thoroughly soaked. Resigning himself to the fact he was about to get very wet, he shoved the revolver into his pocket and pulled his satchel off, letting it drop down into the wet. Momentarily, he wished that he hadn't dropped the bottle of whiskey he had been nursing earlier. He was quickly getting sober, and his fear was returning.

Carefully, he pushed himself into the vent, stopping once he was in to reach back and hook his satchel around his leg, pulling it behind him as he crawled forward. He had no idea where this vent would take him, but any progress was good, as far as he was concerned. It didn't matter how many things got in his way, he would still finish this.

Almost as if in response to his thought, he felt a rush of hot air push at his back. The sound of screaming echoed in his mind, and the pleading of a small child.

_No! I hate you! I hate you! No! Stop! _

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the sound. He focused on the dull metal of the vent, illuminated by the yellow light of the torch. He rushed forward, slamming his joints on the metal, though the water absorbed what would have been a deafening echo.

The wind came again, pushing against his face now. The torchlight flickered, giving him glimpses of total blackness. His breath caught in his throat.

The light flickered, he pushed forward, eager to find an end to the confines of the vent-

She was crawling towards him at insane speed, black hair limp and red dress dark...

Harlan shouted and jerked, and swore loudly when he slammed his head on the roof of the vent. He breathed loudly; reassuring himself he was still alive and intact, and that the air was again cool and still. He cast wary eyes ahead in the now-steady torchlight.

She was gone. Not even a ripple in the water marked where she had been. At was just another thrice-damned hallucination.

'You're not gonna stop me like that, girl' he snarled into the dark. Could she hear him? It didn't matter, he supposed. All that mattered was that he completed his mission.

Though he was beginning to have doubts he'd be alive long enough to do that.

* * *

The tip of Bianca's spear disappeared into the screaming mouth of the splicer, re-emerging from the back of its head in a spray of blood and bone. She snarled at the newly made corpse, and pulled it free.

The sound of shotgun fire echoed from behind her, and she heard a _thump_ as a body hit the floor. In the course of twisting around to slash at another splicer, she saw the teenager she had picked up backed up against a wall, that Little Sister clutching his leg and cheering him on.

Cheering _him_ on? _She_ was doing all the work! Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but surely she had made more kills than he had! Her anger at his efficiency was quickly felt by a twisted female splicer, in the form of the shaft of Bianca's spear slamming into her head.

All too quickly, the fight was over. Heart pounding, she ran her hand over the spear's blade, gathering up blood before bringing it to her lips. She tasted her enemies' blood –and judging by the stinging sensation on her hand, probably some of hers too– and her back arched as the adrenalin in her system burned off with a wonderful sensation of warmth and energy. A small moan may have escaped her, but she wasn't sure.

Still, it was weak and brief compared to the rush from fighting that Big Daddy. The sensation faded almost as quickly as it came, leaving her feeling... unsatisfied.

'Are you done?' asked Elda. She turned and glared at the teenager, who stared back with almost equal intensity. He was holding his shotgun ready to fire as well. They stood there for a few seconds, before Bianca chuckled slightly and turned away.

'What the hell was that, by the way?' asked the teen rather pointedly. Bianca began to turn back and reply, but the Little Sister –Lea, as Elda has so graciously informed her– interrupted her with some comment that the splicer didn't bother to listen to. Elda shushed the child before turning back to her.

'Well?' he barked. Bianca cocked her head to the side, and thought how best to reply. Something scathing and witty would no doubt be appropriate.

'You mean the seven or so splicers I killed protecting your sorry ass? Did I impress you?' she remarked. Not particularly witty response, but it would do.

'No, I mean...' he began, suddenly looking uncomfortable. He made a rolling motion with his hand before continuing, '...with the blood... you know?'

'Oh, that little thing?' she replied, grinning at him. 'Just my little addiction. I told you I wasn't interested in the girl, remember?'

'So... it's blood instead?'

'No no. It's the fight; the adrenalin that does it for me. Need blood to set it off, though'

'O... kay...' responded Elda. He was red in the face now; was this really that important? The next encounter with splicers was inevitable, and she hated waiting for them to come to her.

'So it's... good, then?' he finally spat out.

_Oh shit._

She must have moaned or twitched or something during the rush and now he thought... she wasn't sure what he thought. Jerking him around was fun though; perhaps she could have some fun here.

She grinned at him and chuckled. 'It's better than sex' she said, and turned away as the teen started choking on his tongue and sputtering. Still laughing to herself, she walked forward while Lea attempted to restore him to coherence.

She looked around the street they had found themselves in. It was short, with intersections at either end, and posters advertising various companies pasted all over the walls. She had led them here in get to an old staircase that led down through the guts of the building they were currently in. Taking that staircase was the fastest way to get to Silverfish Lane.

_And I just came from there, too_ she thought. _Why can't they go somewhere else?_

She kicked at a loose rivet on the steel floor, scowling. What was taking them so long? Did the kid swallow his tongue or something? She supposed she shouldn't refer to him as 'kid'; he did seem about her age, after all, maybe a little younger.

Her contemplations were interrupted by a squeal from Lea. She whirled around; spear ready to strike, only to see Elda positioning Lea on his shoulders like some imitation of a Big Daddy. She grinned at the sight; it was amusing to watch the teen pretend he was her real Daddy. She wondered how he had gotten saddled with a Little Sister, of all things. But stranger things had happened, she supposed.

Elda finally got the child firmly wrapped around his neck –it looked rather painful– and walked up beside her. She noticed the Sister seemed to be in the habit of kicking his chest to get him to move. She'd never put up with that.

'Well, where are we going now?' asked Elda. His eyes were following the needle that Lea carried, and was now waving in front of his face. Lea chuckled, and pointed out their next run and explained their destination.

'A big staircase? That's your plan?' he asked, finally turning to face her. She was half-pleased he was brave enough to make eye contact, though she knew he was probably only staring at the discolouration.

'I don't see you coming up with anything better' she snapped.

'But... a staircase? Not an elevator or a train or something?'

'What? Scared of the splicers?' she teased, to which Elda responded with a glare that would have been intimidating were a small girl with glowing yellow eyes and a huge needle not pulling on his hair. As it was, he looked rather pained.

Bianca snorted, and jogged down the short street around the corner off to the left. This time, she waited for Elda to follow, and proceeded to lead him –and the child attached to him– through a series of small alleys and back doors. She supposed it would take about another hour, maybe more, to reach the staircase. When she relayed this information the Elda, the teen responded with a pained groan.

'Suck it up' she growled. Elda muttered something about needing sleep, but continued to follow her. She led them around a corner, but quickly backtracked, grabbing the teen and slamming him against the wall to keep him still.

'What the f–' he began, but was cut off as she slapped her hand over his mouth. Lea began to whine, but a quick glare shut her up. Bianca put her finger to her lips, indicating silence. Only when Elda's eyes widened in understanding and he slowly nodded did she remove her hand.

Gesturing for the teen to stay put, she leaned over to peer around the corner. She swore softly when she got a good look at was going on. She pulled back and turned to Elda, who had removed Lea from his shoulders and readied his shotgun.

'Wall-crawlers' she whispered to the teen. 'About five or six of 'em. Looks like they've tinkered with a security camera'

Elda's knuckles turned white as he gripped his gun. 'I hate those things' he muttered. 'Is there any way around?'

'Sure, if you want to climb through several hundred metres of vent shafts, making a god-awful noise and bringing those spiders down on you' she replied. Elda visibly clenched his teeth and glanced at Lea, who had taken a hold on his leg and was staring up at him with glowing yellow eyes.

'So what do we do?' he whispered. Bianca barked at him to shut up, leaning back around the corner and thinking furiously. Spider splicers were fast; if she and Elda ran straight at them, they'd be skewered before getting halfway there. She had the Areo Dash plasmid, which could take her to them, but then she'd be alone against five of the wall-crawlers and the flying turrets the security camera would release. She'd be torn apart.

'Fuck this... think...' she muttered. It was at this moment Elda decided to butt in.

'Can you get me to that camera?' he asked. Quickly, Bianca snarled an affirmative.

'Yes, but then you'd be useless while I fight everything. Shut up and–'

'How long can you hold them off?' he cut over her. Slightly puzzled, she turned back to see Elda, shotgun slung on his back, pulling some small tools from his belt. What he was planning suddenly became clear.

'Think you can do it quick enough?' she asked, still keeping her voice low. Elda hesitated, then nodded.

'Definitely' he whispered. Quickly he turned around and muttered something to Lea, who released his leg and uncertainly pressed her back against the wall, brandishing her needle like a weapon.

'Alright' he said, pulling out a long, heavy-looking wrench. 'How fast do you think you can–'

Bianca interrupted him mid-sentence by stepping right into his personal space, slipping an arm around his waist and shoving them both past the corner.

'What are you– yarghh!' he yelled as Bianca activated Areo Dash and sent them both flying down the short road. The shrieks of the spider splicers mingled with the rush of the air flying past them, a sound that almost drowned out Elda's scream.

She felt the plasmid running out of power; she threw her feet forward, slamming them onto the floor. Twisting with the momentum, she _hurled_ Elda at the security camera nestled in the corner of the room, just below the ceiling, before spinning on the floor, friction dragging her to a stop with her spear ready.

Above the screamed insults of the spider splicers, Bianca heard Elda slam into the wall, followed by cursing that put the raving mutants to shame. Thoughts of the teen's fate were wiped from her mind, however, when one of the splicers decided to take action and threw a knife at her.

She dodged the projectile, whirling around to see where the splicer that had thrown it had jumped to, but was forced to jump out of the way of another object flung at her throat. Adrenalin rush finally kicking in, Bianca spun her spear around her, picked a target, and attacked.

She ran at the first splicer she saw, a rather unfortunate thing that had dropped to the floor to ready a throw. It brought what looked like half a crowbar up to block her downward stroke, but such was her strength that, as the two weapons collided, she heard a distinctive _crack_ as the splicer's wrist shattered. The thing screamed and twisted away, but Bianca couldn't slash at it again, due to the shard of metal that had implanted itself in her shoulder.

Snarling, she reached up and ripped the shard out of her flesh. Whirling around to see what had attacked her, she saw a flash of blue light coming from the corner of the room, along with the sound of sizzling electricity.

'Open, damn it!' came Elda's voice, accompanied by a sound like a wrench hitting weaker metal.

Bianca ignored him as she slashed at a splicer that had dropped right next to her, swinging a wicked hook. She cut a ragged gash across the freak's face, but it jumped back before she could land a killing blow, probably in order to avoid the two steely blurs flying at her.

Desperately, she swung her spear at the projectiles, deflecting one and sending it flying away into a wall. The other, however, found its way into the meat of her leg. She reached to pull it out, but had to duck and roll when another splicer slashed at the air where her head had been. Quickly, she whipped her spear around and cracked it against a twisted knee. As the thrashing body fell, she stabbed her spear into its neck, bringing the blade to the floor and using the leverage to vault herself into the air and over the still-jerking corpse, deliberately landing with her weight on her uninjured leg.

'You can't have him! He's mine!' shouted a splicer wearing a ragged dress as he charged at her of all fours. Bianca yanked her spear out of her victim's spine, but couldn't bring it up in time to stop the mutated woman from slamming shoulder-first into her. Bianca braced herself against the floor, grunting as whatever the splicers had thrown at her dug further into her leg.

The splicer snarled and snapped and insulted, but Bianca was too strong for her. She shoved the mutant back before slamming the butt of her spear into the base of its neck. As the thing stumbled back, Bianca spun around to meet the splicer coming at her from behind, brandishing half a crowbar awkwardly in its left hand. She admired its courage as she plunged he spear into its gut and twisted.

The splicer's scream of pain mingled with the scream of rage that came from another freak that hurled a knife at her head. She twisted around, replacing herself with the jerking body impaled in her spear. The knife drove itself into the splicer's chest with a satisfying _thump._

'Fuck you bitch! I'll kill you!' screamed the knife-thrower from across the room, shaking a fistful of sharp metal. It hurled another blade at her, which sunk into her screaming human shield. In one sharp movement, she kicked the dying splicer off her weapon and brought it around her neck, holding it like a bat. She activated Areo Dash, and flew towards the splicer, swinging her spear. The metal shaft cracked against the mutant's skull, and would have sent it falling backwards had the back of its head not hit the wall. Between the steel spear and wall, the splicer's skull was crushed.

Flicking the gore off her weapon, she laughed, enjoying the feeling of adrenalin running through her. She was a whirlwind of death, she was bloodlust and rage and terror and–

–Totally fucked. A splicer slammed into her side, knocking her off her feet. She brought her legs up, intending to kick it off her, but stopped when the thing dug clawed hands into her thighs.

'You deserve this... You deserve it' snarled the splicer, before Bianca punched it in the face. It roared in anger, and removed one of its hands from her leg, only to clasp it around her neck. It stared at her, bloodshot eyes not half as dark as her own.

'I got it!' yelled a voice, followed by a wash of bright green light and the shriek of an alarm.

The splicer, shocked still by the sudden rush of light and sound, was easy prey for the wave of bullets that ripped it to pieces. Bianca gasped at the pain as its claws tore free. Not too far away, she heard another scream as the final splicer was riddled with bullets.

Struggling to a sitting position, and from there to standing, was an ordeal of pain and concentration. She made the rather easy decision to forgo burning off the adrenalin; good feeling or no, she supposed the natural painkiller was the only thing keeping her stable, and not screaming incoherently on the ground.

_And that,_ she thought, _is why you do not take on five wall-crawlers by yourself._

Looking around, she saw the origin of the life-saving bullets; a strange flying contraption that resembled nothing so much as a machine gun with a propeller on top keeping it aloft. Bianca recognised it; these things were the security bots that Rapture's security system liked to sic on intruders.

Stumbling across the corpse ridden floor, she looked up at the security camera that was now glowing green. Perched atop it –right where she threw him–, perfectly unharmed, was Elda. She watched dispassionately as he jumped from atop the camera to right beside her.

'I was going to yell at you for chucking me at a wall', he said, looking her up and down. 'But I think you've got off worse than me'.

Bianca opened her mouth to give a scathing retort, but was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal of joy from behind her.

'Mister E! You're okay!' yelled Lea. Judging by the little Bianca saw of her face as she threw herself into Elda's arms, she had literally been worried to tears.

_Cute,_ thought Bianca, _but I think I deserve a little recognition here._

Her desire was satisfied as Elda finally put the Little Sister down and addressed her again.

'Thanks for that, I...' he began in a light tone, but trailed off and began again, far more serious. 'You're losing a lot of blood'

Bianca looked down at herself, and her eyes widened. She was bleeding. Badly. A short knife was embedded in her leg, along with several deep claw-marks. Her back was aching from hitting the ground hard, and she was losing strength in her legs.

'I think... I'm going to sit down' she said, before half-collapsing to the floor, falling on her back the instant she hit the ground. In an instant, Elda was beside her, digging around in his jacket pockets. He frantically rummaged around before pulling out a couple of med hypos.

'This is gonna hurt a bit' he muttered. Bianca was about to reply with something sarcastic, but stopped when a wave of not-pain flowed through her, soothing the searing pain in her legs; which served to nicely offset the sharp sensation of Elda pulling the knife from her other leg and replacing it with a needle point. Again, a wonderful numbing sensation emanated from that point, and the pain all but disappeared. She still felt weak though.

'You alright?' asked Elda, sounding genuinely concerned. Looking down, Bianca saw his hands as he tossed the used hypos away; they were dark and slick with blood, like a fair amount of skin had been burned away. Obviously he had rushed the hack job, and paid for it.

'Your hands, Mister E!' said Lea, obviously just spotting the same thing Bianca had. Looking down at his hands, Elda grimaced; an expression that, when he flexed them, turned to pain.

'It's nothing. I'll be fine' he said 'It's already stopped bleeding'

'Well' said Bianca, getting to her feet. 'You better appreciate this. You owe me big time'

'Yeah' replied Elda, looking at where her wounds had been. 'You sure you're okay?'

'I'm a big girl; I can handle a few stab wounds' she snapped. Elda nodded, and grabbed Lea around the waist, lifting her into the air before settling her on his shoulders.

'Were next?' he asked, pulling his shotgun free. Bianca snorted at his apparent enthusiasm, before pointing out the direction they had to go.

As she led them away from the carnage, her smile fell away. Soon they would reach the staircase, and that was a fight she was _not_ looking forward to.

* * *

The whispers were hunting him again.

He waited, for his reunion.

_Kill them..._

'Yes, mother' he whispered to the air. But it wasn't air, was it? It was _her._

He pounded his fist against the glass wall, looking out onto a vibrant, mutant landscape under the water. He hated it. This ocean was a cage, for both him and mother.

No matter. It was only a matter of time before he was free.

And then he would extract vengeance. For both of them.

_Kill them..._

His name was Paxton Fettel. That was what they told him. He had been born here, in this prison below the ocean, only two years ago. Not the first to be grown such, but nevertheless unique.

The world pulled away in a haze of blood and wind. A flash of red, and he was leaping on a shape below, his weight slamming it to the ground. As it kicked and screamed, he tangled his hand in its hair, and slammed its face into the floor. It stopped moving.

_Kill them all..._

'Kill who, mother? Who needs to die?' he cried from atop the corpse. He felt so useless, so impotent, sitting there unable to obey her wishes.

_Come to me..._

'Y-yes, mother' he said. A red flash replaced the world, and he was in his cell. A hateful cube of steel and dirt and slime, he remembered the months he lay in here, with only his own mind for company.

'Mother, where are you?' he called. Maybe he was wrong, maybe she wasn't here. Doubt and fear swirled in his mind, and he collapsed.

And then, she was _there_. The whispers filled his mind, consoling him, cherishing him. He could feel her approaching. The sheer _pressure_ he felt from her approach was staggering. She pressed on his mind, her presence enveloping him.

He could see things, memories from long ago. But he had never seen these men, had he? The needle pressed into her arm was not his memory. The child under her flesh was not his.

He remembered the dark; the sleep that was not sleep, where she could walk in the places where thought did not reach, but was restrained by the ocean's cold depths.

He was alone. They had taken everything from him. She remembered the rage, constantly attacking her. She couldn't stop it. She _became_ rage. He _became_ hate.

Paxton Fettel was no more. She was melding with his mind, feeding him her memories, her experiences, her drives. For that moment, Paxton Fettel was Alma.

_Alma_. That was her name.

_Paxton Fettel_.That was his name.

He thought as he had not in a long time; wild thoughts and delusions had fled, leaving but one great truth, one great purpose.

Paxton rose from the floor of his cell. She retreated, and his mind was his own again. He raised his hand before his face, and watched with mild fascination as it turned to ash and drifted away on a hot wind that came from nowhere.

Then he stood alone. But he wasn't alone anymore. Thousands of shattered minds surrounded him; shattered like he had been. But he had been healed, and so he was their better.

Growls and screams filled his mind as he took them. They fell to his control, and he was their master.

'I will kill them' that is what he had promised. But now he knew; there was only one life that needed snuffing out. But mother had more than one desire.

'Revenge... freedom' he whispered, 'and Father'.

_A/N_

_You have _**_no_**_ idea how difficult it is to write Paxton Fettel. I re-wrote his introduction about three times before I decided it was good enough to upload. It's hard because he has to be similar to Alma, but he has to be human as well. He has to be insane, but not off-the-wall nuts. He has to be powerful, but vulnerable. He's, in a nutshell, a really fucking complex character and anyone who says they've written him perfectly is going to hell for lying._

_So yeah, I'm back. You can probably thank HiddenMaster for that, more specifically his awesome review. Everyone follow his example and give me nice, big reviews. But please, I need to know what aspects of writing I'm not so hot at. While telling me I'm awesome is appreciated, constructive criticism is appreciated even more!_

_On an ending note, what do you think of Bianca? I've shown all my friends and one thinks she's awesome and the other hates her for sucking away all the dramatic tension. I need more feedback to make a decision on whether or not she's worth keeping around._


	7. Chapter 7: Seeking Refuge

'_This_ is the staircase?' asked Elda. In response, Bianca growled at him and sat down at the edge of the drop, letting her legs dangle.

'Yep' she said, staring at the twisted structure. 'Still want to go for it?'

'Uh...' replied Elda. He was speechless; when Bianca had told him about a staircase that ran down the centre of the building, he had assumed that there would be _stairs_ involved. Instead, the 'staircase' consisted of one great big empty shaft, rigged up with rusty scaffolding and crisscrossed with ladders and pipes. Floodlights ran down the sides of the shaft, but most were broken, producing the strange effect of having patches of light pressed up right next to pitch darkness.

'I'm not sure this is a-' began Elda, but was cut off by the high-pitched yell that echoed to them not ten metres away.

'Mister E! Lookit what I found!' called Lea, running up beside the teen. Elda, glad to forget the shaft, turned his attention to the Little Sister.

'What is it?'

'Come see, come see!' replied Lea, grabbing Elda's hand and pulling with a surprising amount of strength.

'Ugh' Bianca groaned, getting to her feet. Come on, we might as well see what's gotten her in a huff'. And with that, she walked over to Elda's side, gesturing for him to let the girl pull him along. Elda, tired and separated, didn't offer any resistance.

Lea led them a short distance down a side corridor, before turning a corner. The pathway ended abruptly, but was, much to Elda's delight, lined with vending machines.

'That's it?' muttered Bianca. 'I would've thought she found a plasmid or something'

Elda shot a glance at her that could melt steel, and sparks of electricity flickered across his fingers. 'This is _good_' he growled, 'I haven't seen one of these in...' He trailed off, unable to remember how long it had been since he had used a vending machine. Days, maybe? It was before he met Harlan, certainly.

'Don't get cranky, Little Daddy, especially not with me' Bianca replied, half-joking, half-threatening. She was smiling, but her grin was a little too predatory, her bloodied eyes a little too feral for it to put Elda at ease.

'Look, Mister E, look!' said Lea, pointing at the closest machine. The rose-red neon it was covered in, and the two statues of Little Sisters that flanked it, marked it clearly as a Gatherer's Garden machine, one of Rapture's mechanical drug-dealers.

That wasn't entirely true, of course. The machines simply synthesised raw ADAM into usable plasmids and tonics, but, emergency healing aside, no-one except splicers would use the mutagen until it had been processed by one of the machines.

Elda quickly rifled through his pockets, pulling out everything he had. What he produced was a mess of EVE and medical hypos, 00 and Electric Buck, several revolver rounds, and his wallet. After noting that he needed something better to hold all of his stuff in, he finally produced what he was looking for; a sealed ADAM canister, stolen from Harlan.

Elda grinned at Bianca's incredulous look, but his face fell when he examined the small meter of the base of the canister. Harlan hadn't lied when he said most of his ADAM was used up removing Lea's need to harvest; he had barely 10 units of the stuff left.

'Not enough' he muttered, reaching to put his stuff back into his pockets. He was stopped when Bianca grabbed the ADAM canister.

'Hey- You hand that back-' he said, twisting around, hands crackling with electricity. He was about to fry the splicer when she cut him off.

'You fucking idiot' she snapped, gesturing at Lea. 'You _have_ all the ADAM you need right here'

'I am _not_ about to...'

'I'm not suggesting that. How do you think they get ADAM from the Sisters anyway?'

'I... er...' Elda trailed off, glancing at Lea, who was regarding him herself, glowing yellow eyes seeming... confused.

'You... you want ADAM, Mister E?' she asked, uncertain. Elda looked at Bianca, who nodded vigorously. Slowly, the teen looked back at the Little Sister.

'Y-yeah' he said. The hunger was beginning to flare up in him again. The dull, burning ache in the back of his throat rising in intensity, becoming like an almost painful itch; he forcefully shoved it from his mind.

'Okie-dokie!' exclaimed Lea, clapping her hands together. Elda, put off by her sudden change in mood, watched as the younger girl yanked the ADAM canister from the hand of the older, and quickly began unscrewing the top.

'I've seen this before' said Bianca, 'you may want to turn away'

'Why would I-' began Elda, but was cut off by the sudden sounds of Lea retching, doubled over with the canister to her mouth. More than a little repulsed, he turned his head as the sound of thick liquid falling into the canister reached his ears. Only a few seconds passed before the sound was replaced by the sound of the canister lid being re-sealed.

'All done, Mister E!' chimed Lea. Elda turned back to see the Little Sister offering him the steel canister. He took it, and quickly checked the meter; the numbers now proclaimed that the canister contained 50 units of ADAM. Grinning, Elda turned his attention to the Gatherer's Garden Machine, ignoring Bianca's snide remark about encouraging anorexia in small children.

He accessed the machine, turning dials to see what was available. Plasmids were well out of his price range, but a Gene Tonic certainly was not. A few moments passed as he contemplated his choices.

_Strength, speed, toughened skin, invisibility..._ he pondered. His fingers twitched, and a few sparks flew from the tips. Elda's eyes caught the points of blue light, and he grinned.

He quickly inserted the canister and pulled a small lever, listening as the ADAM drained into the machine. After a few seconds of tense waiting, a small syringe dropped out of the slot near the machine's base, filled with a glowing, light green liquid.

'You sure you wanna do that?' asked Bianca, leaning on her spear. Elda growled at her and snatched up the tonic, stabbing it into his arm. A searing pain spread from the needle; he could feel it spreading through his blood, through his bones. Electricity arced between his fingers and down his arms, everything he saw was tinted bright blue; he doubled over, nearly collapsing on the ground.

And then it was over. Breathing deeply, Elda glanced at the worried expression on Lea's face, and the slightly bemused one Bianca wore. He scowled, and pulled himself properly upright, examining the changes.

He looked at his hands; electricity flowed under the skin, as it used to, but brighter, stronger. The glow spread up his arms, disappearing under his coat sleeves. A faint tingling was everywhere; he could feel it in his very bones.

'Electric Flesh' said Bianca, 'Weren't you throwing enough lightning before?'

Elda growled, and in response, flung his hand towards the wall. A bolt of crackling blue light flew from his fingers; he could hear the air crack and sizzle in its wake. He looked over; the stricken tiles were partly melted together now, and scorched pieces of decorative ceramic fell to the ground.

Elda stared at his hand; this was _much _more powerful. He felt a smile twitch at the edges of his mouth, and found himself chuckling. Those splicers didn't stand a-

The air turned warm, carrying the smell of smoke and blood on a hot wind. He could feel his heart in his ears, and his hands sparked to life. His twisted around, and the world blurred red. _She_ was standing there, just looking; lank black hair falling over her eyes, dress red like blood. Elda's breathing caught, and he brought his hand up, the blue light washed away by the red haze…

She was gone. Just tiles and dirt. Was she really there? His frantically beating heart attested yes. Behind him, he could make out her voice, addressing him.

'You tripping out or what? Still with us?' she said. She sounded concerned, almost. Elda shook his head, trying to clear it.

'I'm fine, I just saw-' he began, his voice suddenly drowned out by the animalistic roar coming from behind them.

'I got them! A little one!'

Elda's eyes flicked over to the sound, his hand flicking to his pistol. He needn't have bothered; he saw Bianca _blur_, and then she was there, standing next to a splicer in a worn-out suit, her spear driven neatly through his neck.

'Bloody things' she growled, her head perking up when more yells and screams began to cut the air.

'Come on! We have to go!' she screamed at Elda. The teen leant down and scooped up Lea, depositing her on his shoulders.

'Hang on tight' he told her, though she was already clutching his head in a death-grip. He pulled Old Buck from his belt and raced after his ally. He twisted around the corner, in the last second seeing Bianca hurl a splicer over the edge of the Stairway.

'Most of them aren't here yet' she barked at them, 'get a move on!'

And with that, she ran towards the edge herself, gripping the edge of a bit of scaffolding and dropping down. Hearing the approaching screams of the splicers, Elda slipped Old Buck back into his belt and followed her.

The scaffolding was old and worn, but surprisingly sturdy. With as much haste as he could muster, he let himself hand from the edge. With Lea of his shoulders, he couldn't turn his head to see down. Hoping that he wasn't making a huge mistake, he let his fingers slip from the metal edge.

In half a second that lasted a lifetime, Elda fell. His breath caught, and he knew he had made a mistake. He and Lea were going to plummet to a very messy death. Or they would if he hadn't immediately landed on a platform below, Lea's weight driving his to his knees.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grip his collar, and was yanked to his feet. He found his face uncomfortably close to Bianca's; he could smell her breath, like stale bread and dried blood.

'Over there' she barked, releasing his collar and pointing below them, across the drop. Taking quick stock, Elda saw what looked like a busted elevator shaft with the door jammed open, a single plank crossing from it to a platform on their side, directly below them and connected by a ladder. Thinking furiously, Elda guessed at a twenty metre decent via the ladder, and another ten across the drop.

'Okay, we're gonna need rope or someth- gah!' he threw himself at the ground as a bullet flew past the spot where his head was an instant earlier, momentarily forgetting Lea's perch on his shoulders and subsequently smacking his head into the scaffolding's steel floor.

Swearing loudly, he wrenched himself to his feet and drew his pistol. He could see a splicer taking aim at him from the ledge using some kind of rifle. The thing never got another shot out, however, as the next second saw Elda firing wildly at it, a bullet shattering its knee and sending it tumbling over the edge.

Elda glanced at the ladder to his side, lashed to holes in the metal. He saw Bianca's hand release the first rung, and looking back up revealed two more splicers with guns on the far side of the drop, and another scrambling over edge.

Electricity crawled over his left hand, and the descending thug copped a blast of Electro Bolt in the back of the head. It released its grip on the edge and fell, clipping its head on the side of the scaffolding.

Elda rushed over to the ladder, passing his pistol to the Little Sister still latched firmly onto his head.

'Hold this' he ordered, as Lea tentatively gripped the too-big gun and pulled it away from his hand. Elda thought she heard her say something, but Bianca's scream from below cut over her.

'Get a fucking move on!' she yelled from the platform beneath them. Hurriedly, Elda lowered himself onto the ladder, descending as quickly as he could. Above him, he heard a splicer scream.

'He's taking her away! Kill him!'

And with that, bullets began pinging off the ladder. Twisting his head as best he could, he released one hand and swung around to face the offending mutant, pointing his hand at the thing.

A crackling bolt of electricity struck the splicer in the gut, making it collapse, but a split-second too late. Elda yelped at he felt the splicer's final bullet go through his thigh. His leg slipped off the ladder, and he nearly toppled down; his arm felt like it was almost pulled from the socket. Gritting his teeth, he swung back around and gripped the ladder with both hands and kept going down, mostly using the strength of his arms.

He was almost near the bottom when his strength gave out, falling the last metre or so, slamming various body parts on the rungs on the way down. He was grateful when he felt Bianca pulling his to his feet.

'Get across the bridge, and I'll cover you! Got it?' she yelled, before pulling away. Elda was dimly aware of her pulling his pistol away from Lea, and he hand digging into his pocket, pulling away a handful of bullets.

'Go, Mister E! We have to go!' squealed Lea, who had somehow managed to stay latched firmly to him. Nodding grimly, Elda took a step forward on his injured leg, sicking dangerously near the ground –and edge– when the pain shot through him.

_No_, he thought,_ I _can_ do this._ Ignoring the pain as best he could, he faced the single metal plank, a little under half a metre wide, crossing the ten-metre gap. He took a deep breath, and bent as low to the ground as he could, began to run.

The plank was solid, and didn't shake, but Elda did. The pain lanced through him, but he kept going.

Eight metres.

He heard Bianca firing on the splicers above, Lea's squeals in his ear. He kept running.

Five metres.

The world was turning red, the sounds of the battle above muted. He was slowing down. He pushed as hard as he could against the air, but he moved as if he were forcing his way through honey.

Two metres.

A man stood before him, looking down. He was dressed well, in a black suit that the bloodstains didn't show up well on. Short brown hair, not very old.

Elda's blood ran cold. He felt Lea gripping him like a vice; dead weight pushing him down. He could see murder in this man's eyes. Not hate or pity, but a slightly smug look, like he knew something Elda didn't.

Elda could hear the whispering in his head. _Her _whispers, he was sure. He man leaned down over Elda's almost-prone form, and spoke.

'You were born here, under the water' he said, softly, like he was talking to a dying man.

'You couldn't feel her before, could you? I could'

He leaned in closer. Elda's eyes cleared a little, and he saw dried blood caked around the man's mouth. The smell of fresh meat assaulted his nose.

'But you can feel her now, can't you?

'Yes. Now, you have work to do'

The red was gone, and Elda was flying through the air. The plank flew underneath him, and he fell through the pried-open doors of the elevator. He felt lea's grip slacken, and she tumbled off him when they collapsed onto the floor. Moaning, Elda turned himself around, looking behind him. The only trace of the main was a swirl of black ash, blown away by that damnable wind.

He saw a blurred body flash across the plank, tumbling into the elevator. Quickly as she came, Bianca got to her feet and wrenched the doors shut. Abruptly, frenzied screams and gunshots were muffled, and the air was still.

Elda lay there for a few seconds, breathing heavily. The might have blacked out, but the searing pain in his leg brought him back to reality. Finally, he bothered to check his surroundings.

They were in a very cramped elevator that looked like it had never seen actual use. Everything was covered in a layer of dust and dirt, with Elda's blood leaking out into the floor.

The teen shifted his weight, yelping as Old Buck's handle dug sharply into his back. That seemed to grab Bianca's attention.

'Oh you went and got yourself shot, did you?' she snarled.

'Shut up' snapped Elda. Bianca bared her teeth, then knelt down beside him, shoving Lea out of the way, much to the Little Sister's very vocal displeasure. Elda saw her put aside his pistol, and reach into her pocket, withdrawing what looked like a small pair of pliers.

'You know, I reckon I can handle tha–' he began to say, before getting the wind knocked out of him by Bianca's sudden strike to his chest. Muttering something about 'clumsy, ugly work', she eased the tool into his wound with surprising care. In a short time, she had grasped the bullet and yanked it out.

'You got med on you?' she asked, and Elda quickly dug around in his jacket pocket, pulling out a med hypo and offering it to the girl. Bianca snatched it up and stabbed it into the bullet-hole. A familiar numb sensation emanated from wound, smoothing over the pain. Elda let his head roll back, enjoying the sensation, only for it to snap back up when in his peripheral vision, he saw Bianca unravelling a bloodstained bit of cloth around her upper arm, exposing a badly torn sleeve and a faint scar.

Quickly, she wrapped the stained bandage around Elda's leg, before leaning back to survey her handiwork.

'You'll be fine' she pronounced. Elda flexed his leg; it worked fine.

'Is this really necessary?' he asked, indicating the bandage. 'Never needed one before'

'And you got all scarred up' countered Bianca. 'Don't want to end up looking like _them_, do you?'

Elda shivered, and Bianca got to her feet, grabbing her spear. The teen looked on in puzzlement as she began to use it to poke the ceiling.

'Come on, stupid hatch…' she muttered, before giving the spear an almighty shove, and a piece of the ceiling came loose, falling to the floor with a loud crash, uncomfortable close to Elda's head. He took this as a sign he should get to his feet.

Once upright, Bianca addressed him again. 'Silverfish lane is just there, you see?' she said, pointing through the hole in the roof. Staring through it, Elda saw a short length of elevator shaft, an open grate letting light stream through.

He blinked, and then Bianca was there, already through the hatch, reaching down to him.

'Come here', he told Lea, and scooped up the Little Sister, who promptly climbed up onto his shoulders. Elda was momentarily pleased that the girl didn't wear shoes; that would have _hurt_.

After taking a second to retrieve his pistol, he gripped Bianca's hand and hoisted himself up through the hatch, before following the splicer up the ladder that ran down the side of the elevator shaft. Finally, he pulled himself out of the shaft, pulling Lea from his shoulders and depositing her beside him.

'Silverfish Lane' he breathed. He was so close now, he could feel it. It was a small, badly lit place, made of wood as much as metal. He just had to get to that surface import shop, Mercury's Hideaway, and then all that separated him from the Gaia District was one bulkhead.

Still, it had been a long time since he had been to Mercury's Hideaway, years really, and that was well before Rapture went to hell.

He turned around, just in time to get a good look at Bianca running her spear over her tongue, the splicer blood still wet. Mildly disgusted, he turned his back to her, but that was arguably worse as she let out a sound that he could really only identify as a _purr_.

'Are you done?' he asked, turning back. Bianca grinned at him, licking her lips. Elda felt his face heat up, which only seemed to amuse the splicer more.

'Oh, not _quite_ yet' she chuckled, looking positively predatory. Elda shivered, then jumped when he felt a hand tug as the hem of his coat. He turned around, to see Lea looking up at him, glowing yellow eyes wide.

'Are we going, Mister E?' whined Lea. Elda rolled his eyes; this kid just would –not– let him catch a break. Sighing, he addressed Bianca.

'We're looking for an import shop. Lots of blue neon; shouldn't be too hard to find' he said, turning to look down the street. As he pulled Old Buck into his hands and began to walk, he thought he heard Bianca giggle behind him. Strange how it sent cold shivers down his spine.

* * *

'Come on, you son of a bitch. Open up!' growled Harlan as he pulled uselessly at the rusted-over hatch on the steel door that stood before him. Almost snarling, he heaved with all the force he could muster, but to no avail; the handle stayed infuriatingly immobile.

'Rustproof steel my ass' the old man muttered, having long ago stopped caring whether or not he talked to himself. There was no-one around to call him crazy, after all. And if there were, he wasn't entirely sure they'd be wrong.

Abandoning the brute force approach, Harlan examined the rusted door; the thing was barely recognisable, covered almost entirely by rust and corrosion. The internal mechanism was probably warped beyond all recognition, probably due to the ever-present ankle-deep salt water. Harlan thought there must be a malfunctioning bulkhead somewhere, letting water in from a flooded chamber. A smaller leak would have just frozen over, after all.

Or maybe not. Abandoning the door, he leant down and dipped his hand in the freezing water, scooping up some of the salty liquid and quickly depositing it on the back of his neck, sighing wit relief. The damnable wind that kept blowing from behind him had long ago gotten terribly hot, to the point that his flesh was red and almost burned, despite the cold and wet environment.

'I know you won't kill me with the bloody wind' he muttered. 'So you think you could leave it off?'

There was no response, except perhaps a whisper, carried in the next burst or scalding air. Harlan gritted his teeth as the painful sensation reached him. 'Fuck you', he whispered into the wind.

Turning his attention back to the door, he reached into his satchel, pulling out his hacker's toolkit. Quickly, he pulled out a small chisel and hammer. The tools were far too small to break through a steel door with, but he had a different idea. Carefully placing the chisel on the point where the rusted handle slid into the door, Harlan began to chip away rust, tiny piece by tiny piece.

Soon, he broke through into the mechanism. Glancing inside, all he saw were indistinct, rusted shapes. He returned the tools to his satchel, and removed from it the last handful of bullets he had; unfortunately, the salt water had ruined all his actual firearms. Carefully, he pulled the bullets apart, pouring gunpowder into the door mechanism. Soon, the contents of a few shotgun shells joined the mix as well. Harlan finished off the mix by inserting a Phosphorous Buck shell he found lying in the bottom of his satchel.

Carefully, he pulled a few matches from a tiny, waterproof capsule; his last source of fire. He struck them on the rusted door, bringing them flaring into life. Quickly, he stuck the burning sticks into the hole, diving out of the way as, an instant later, the volatile gunpowder/phosphorus mix within detonated with a vicious _crack_ and a plume of flame, pieces of rusted metal flying out into the inky water.

Grunting, Harlan seized the handle and pushed down with all his might. The rusted metal started to move, and with a horrendous shriek of metal on metal, it gave way, almost dropping Harlan into the water. Grumbling, the old man pushed against the door, ignoring the horrible grinding noise it made as it finally swung open.

Harlan stepped over the threshold, breathing in an unusual mix of the scents of salt and dust, carefully examining his surroundings. Shelves lined the wall to his left, piled high with audio-dairy tapes. Opposite from it, desks were lined up, piled high with papers that Harlan recognised as research notes. Down the other side of the room, two doors flanked an old, rusty elevator.

'Home sweet home' Harlan muttered to himself, striding through the still water to the elevator. Half-knowing it was futile, he attempted to pull the grate open, to no avail. Sighing, he turned his attention to the doors. He remembered them; the one to his right led to cleaning closets, a recreation room, and sleeping quarters. Nothing he was interested in.

He turned left, facing the remaining door. A few steps and a pull of the handle, and he crossed it. He found himself in a small, cramped room, a single desk facing him, cluttered with papers and a battered typewriter. Shelves lined the walls, filled with tapes, pictures, boxes of old reports. He could practically recite those papers; they were so familiar to him.

His was standing in his old office; a wave of nostalgia hit him, mixed with nausea. This was where he worked for years, almost as long as Rapture had existed. This was where he devised the experiments, issued his orders…

Ruined a life. He shivered, though he was used to the cold. Hesitantly, he walked around the room and sat down at the old desk. He needed time to think, to plan his next move.

He needed to get down that elevator shaft, but obviously, everything down there was underwater. He needed to find some way to close the submerged bulkhead and drain the chamber below; not an easy task. Momentarily, he wondered if he really needed to. After all, if she was underwater, how much harm could she ever do, compared to what Rapture was doing to itself?

The hot wind stirred, and the old man's knuckles went white. No, this needed to be done, and he was running out of time.

* * *

'How much longer is this gonna take?' asked Bianca, for the fifth time in as many minutes. Elda growled at her in response, backed up by Lea delivering a swift kick to the splicer's shin.

'Ow! I'm gonna wring your little-'

'Shut up!' barked Elda, turning towards them, away from the combination lock that he'd been fiddling with for the past half-hour. 'Both of you!'

Lea began to pout, Bianca just growled, like she fully intended to attack the Little Sister. Elda sighed, and turned back to the lock, fiddling with the dial.

They stood in front of Mercury's Hideaway, having somehow found their way to the, quite thoroughly locked, back door; the entire front of the shop had long collapsed. If it weren't for the shards of blue glass that had once been its neon lighting, Elda would never have noticed it.

Now, they had to get into the shop, and head down a corridor within that Elda remembered would take them directly to the bulkhead that separated Silverfish Lane from the Gaia District. The teen thought it a little odd that only way to an entire section of the city was through a long-closed export shop, but reasoned that the shop probably appeared after the passageway, by someone hoping to capitalise on foot traffic. Either that or Rapture's city planning department was comprised entirely of brain-dead monkeys; at this point, he'd believe either.

So now all that separated him from safety was one bloody 4-digit combination lock. The previous owner seemed to possess some measure of grey matter, and had welded a few pieces of moulded metal around the mechanism, preventing Elda from tinkering with the lock itself. So he was stuck trying every possible combination, one after the other. No idiot would leave their password lying around for him to find, certainly.

'I'm boooored, Mister E!' whined Lea, which earned her a snarl and a narrowly-dodged kick from Bianca. After Elda snapped at them both to knock it off, the splicer turned away, muttering under her breath. Elda ignored her, returning to the lock.

'Seven six nine two… no. Seven six nine three… no. Seven six nine four… n-' he muttered to himself, suddenly cut off by the wonderful clicking noise of the mechanism as it finally ratcheted into place. Elda gave the door an experimental push, and it swung open easily.

'Finally!' said Elda, half-shouting. He scooped up Lea and placed her on his shoulders, nearly getting stabbed in the neck by her needle. Turning back, he called to Bianca.

'I got it open! We're almost there!' he said, before turning back towards the doorway. He stepped over the threshold just as the splicer called back:

'Wait! You should check for-'

_Brraaaaaaaaaap, brraaaaaaaaaap, brraaaaaaaaaap, brraaaaaaaaaap, brraaaaaaaaaap._

'…alarms'

'FUCK!' yelled Elda, pulling Old Buck free, Lea wrapping her arms around his neck. He turned around, just in time to see Bianca blur towards him, grabbing him by the collar and shoving her face scant centimetres in front of his.

'Where do we go?' she screamed at him, blood-scented breath blasting into his face. Too shocked to really speak, Elda mumbled something unintelligible, forcing them to stand there until a security bot, a strange contraption comprised of a gun, a box of ammo and a propeller, appeared at the doorway and opened fire.

Bullets sprayed out, and would have perforated both Elda and Bianca, had she not thrown the teen out of the way before jumping back herself. The splicer landed expertly on her feet, while Elda, top-heavy with Lea's weight on his shoulders, landed unceremoniously on his ass, his head flying back and cracking against the floor.

His vision was hazy as he struggled to pull himself upright, with dazed as he was, and with Lea having practically wrapped herself around his head, only succeeded in rolling onto his side. He caught a glimpse of the bot flying into the shop, turning towards him, ready to unleash lead death.

Off-balance and weighed down by Lea, Elda screwed his eyes shut, expecting to be torn to ribbons. He heard the bullets crack the air as they were spat from the bot, shattering the tiles as they impacted the floor next to him.

Elda opened his eyes, and saw Bianca with her arm wrapped around the bot, struggling to rein it in; bullets sprayed from the flying machine, wrecking the walls and floor even more than they were already. Snarling, Bianca threw her other arm around the bot and _blurred_, moving impossibly fast towards a wall. Elda barely glimpsed her swinging the machine as she moved, but the following impact of the bot against wall, and subsequent falling of wrecked rotors and spilled ammo, was rather hard to miss.

Turning towards him, her lips pulled back in a furious snarl, the splicer proceeded to wrench Lea's limbs from their position around Elda's head, finally allowing him to pull himself upright. Breathing heavily from a sitting position, the teen looked up at the splicer.

'You stupid, ignorant, fucking moron! You don't stop and think; you just walk off and leave me to save your sorry…' Bianca half-screamed at him. The shrieking alarm had shut off, leaving only the angry girl's reprimand. Something about that bugged Elda. One alarm, but only one bot…

'I should have left you to get gutted by those bloody…' she continued, but Elda was looking behind her, towards the doorway into the shop. He saw shattered glass, dust and dirt and blood, a discarded crowbar, a spinning propeller, just coming into view…

'And that's why your mother is a –HEY!' she shouted as Elda launched himself forward, pushing her out of the way. Blue light raced down his arm, and a lance of electricity connected viciously with the security bot sneaking up on them. The machine sputtered and hovered for a second, almost as if confused by what just happened to it, before dropping to the floor.

Bianca stared at the sputtering, jerking bot that lay on the ground. Elda drew his wrench, and brought it down on the machine, silencing it with one swift blow. The teen glanced at Bianca, who simply glared back at him. They stood like that for a few seconds before the splicer shrugged her shoulders and turned away without a word, heading back towards the open door. Elda muttered under his breath and tucked his wrench away, before scooping up Old Buck and turning to follow her.

'Mister E…' whined Lea, reaching up to the teen with her arms outstretched. Elda rolled his eyes and knelt down, allowing the Little Sister to climb up and take her favourite position atop his shoulders, nearly jabbing him with the massive needle she still carried. A few steps later, and he stood beside Bianca, staring at the open doorway. It entered into a short tunnel that grew very dark, very fast. The smell of murky water emanated from it.

'So you're sure this is the way? Not to be rude, but you realise this is just a random tunnel in the back of an old export shop right?' asked Bianca. Elda sighed, and activated Electro Bolt, sending a neon blue glow through the tunnel. Tentatively, he stepped through the doorway.

'You coming?' he asked the splicer behind him. Bianca didn't reply, and the question hung in the air. Elda's finger twitched on the trigger of the shotgun; had the splicer finally decided that gutting him would be more fun?

The silence dragged on. Elda drew breath to speak, but the splicer finally spoke up before he could.

'Of course I am. You wouldn't last two seconds without me'

'took you that long to say it?' he replied. When Bianca glared at him, he shrugged. 'I handle myself well enough'

'Suuure you do' she drawled, and winked at him. Elda shivered; that was _creepy_. The splicer began walking forward. Together they walked down the tunnel; the blue light emanating from Elda's arm casting a garish glow on everything around them. Lea yawned, and settled herself into a more comfortable position on Elda's shoulders.

'You just let her ride up there?' asked Bianca, glancing at the Little Sister.

'She's not very heavy'

'Yeah, but still, don't you want to eat her?' she quipped, and Elda's head snapped around. Damn it, she reminded him of the gnawing hunger in his gut, and the tantalising smell the Little Sister carried with her. He imagined how much stronger her could be. How much better…

'No' he replied. 'I would never'

'If you say so', said Bianca. 'Hang on; I think we're coming up to something'

And sure enough, they were. At the end of the tunnel, mostly shrouded in darkness, was a great metal bulkhead. Elda grinned, and rushed over to the door, gripping the hatch with both hands. It turned easily, as though it had been oiled recently.

_This is it_, Elda thought. _I'm safe. No more splicers, no more guns. I'm sure they know a way out of this hellhole, I'm sure of it!_

'Uh, Elda? We may have a problem…' said Bianca from behind him. Tensing up, Elda noticed the green light that had just appeared, shining from a security light tucked away in the previously darkened corner of the bulkhead. It was focused right on him.

The metal door of the bulkhead swung open. Beyond it, Elda saw the barrels of multiple guns, gleaming in the shadows, all pointed at him.

'Drop the gun' growled a voice from beyond the light, 'and lose the plasmid'. Elda complied, letting Old Buck clatter to the floor and the light of Electro Bolt to fade. A foot flashed out from the doorway and kicked the shotgun away.

'Please, we need help'. I just-' began Elda.

'Shut up' said the voice, cutting him off. 'Until we know you're sane, you're a safety hazard'

'But I-'

'I said shut it. Hand any other guns you've got over; you'll get 'em back if we think you're trustworthy. 'Till then, you're a splicer, so far as we see it'

_Splicer!_ The word shot through Elda's mind like a bullet. What about Bianca? He turned around, drawing breath to tell the girl to run, but saw nothing. For the first time, he noticed a missing weight on his shoulders.

Lea was gone. Bianca had taken her.

'Fuck' muttered Elda. Slowly, he pulled his pistol from his pocket and handed it to the large, grim-faced man that stepped through the doorway, who handed it to the man beside him. He watched as the man picked up Old Buck, testing its weight.

'Good gun you've got here. That's a point in your favour; most splicers don't care enough to keep their guns in working order' he said, before turning back to the men pointing guns at Elda.

'Okay boys, guns down. I reckon he's safe enough for now. Take him to the holding cells, but watch it. You saw that plasmid he was packing' he said, and the men muttered an agreement, easing off their aim on Elda's head.

'Okay, move out!' the man shouted, and Elda yelped as a hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him forward, practically dragging him through the bulkhead door and into the dark. The men around him barked a few orders; don't talk, don't struggle, and don't flip out. Amidst the jumble of mutterings and orders, Elda heard a voice echoing fro down the tunnel. A female voice. _Her _voice.

_I'll get you out of there._


End file.
